THE nation will soon go to the polls, but Malaysians will not be alone in doing so.
Neighbouring Philippines is
expected to do the same in May as it follows a very United States-style system of mid-term elections for half its Congress and local officials, while the following month, Indonesians will likewise be electing local officials nation-wide.
Still, our respective electoral and political systems cannot be more different. Both our neighbours adopt presidential systems whereas we have been
consistently following a Westminster-style parliamentary democracy since Merdeka.
Our executive branch is drawn from the legislative arm whereas the Philippine and Indonesian presidents have a free hand in picking their respective cabinets, often choosing respected technocrats not necessarily tied to strict political loyalties. Such an arrangement clearly has its merits.
But our own system is tried and tested in other respects. A cabinet of elected legislators such as ours means the Malaysian cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, with the prime minister as first among equals, more or less.
Direct political power is further diffused by the need and pressures to keep parties in the ruling coalition happy. States and our unique network of constitutional rulers add further layers of checks on political power wielded by the executive.
In that sense, there is less scope in Malaysia for a more personalised concentration of political power as afforded by presidential systems such as those in the Philippines and Indonesia.
This is important to take into consideration in view of the very unhealthy tendency by the opposition, in particular, to focus attention and energy almost exclusively on the position and even the person of the prime minister.
A Malaysian prime minister is accountable to his cabinet colleagues, to Parliament, to components of his ruling coalition, to states, to the rulers and ultimately, to the people come time for a general election.
A general election in any mature parliamentary democracy such as ours must therefore be the occasion, above all, for a public accounting on the general performance of any government of which the prime minister is only incidentally its head.
The current opposition assault, almost exclusively on the person and conduct of the prime minister, short-changes the people.
The sitting government looks to be all ready to defend its record of governing the country through the duration of the current Parliament. It is incumbent on the opposition to hold that record up for public scrutiny and point out any weaknesses or shortcomings therein and, equally important, to propose alternatives for any areas where it feels we may collectively do better.
Instead, what we are witnessing is a heightened intensity in attacks focused on the prime minister to the almost total exclusion of advancing a fully coherent and comprehensive alternative agenda for governing the country.
The unhealthy focus on attacking the prime minister instead of the government he leads and its record exposes the coming election to the very likelihood of it becoming little more than a very personal vendetta on the prime minister. The whole country will be the poorer were that to happen.
And, it has become clearer by the day that this is exactly what is going to happen. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who was used to having his way when he was the prime minister has admitted as much when he owned up to disagreeing with major economic planks advanced by the opposition coalition he now leads.
Dr Mahathir has even succumbed to obvious populist opposition pressures by agreeing to the abolition of hard-won economic reform measures such as the Goods and Services Tax atop Pakatan Harapan’s manifesto.
The 14th General Election cannot, and should not, be just some sort of referendum on a single person, even if that person happens to hold the all-important position of prime minister.
That will be a manifest insult to the intelligence of common Malaysians who regard many other matters and issues as of equal if not far greater importance to them.
Both the ruling and opposition camps in any elections — and especially one as pivotal as this coming one — must not lose sight that there is a day after when there will be winners and losers and both will have to pick up the pieces and let the country move on and ahead.
That will be hard, if not impossible, if in the run-up to the polling day, we thoroughly poison the well.