The Youth & The Kleptocrat Meets
Here’s what I think about Syed Saddiq meeting Najib.
To meet someone and have a friendly discussion does not mean you support him or his opinions or policies. To argue with someone and condemn her ideas does not mean you are wholly — or even partially—against her.
I firmly believe that Malaysians’ inability to grasp this tenet is an underlying reason why our country is in such a shithole.
I can appreciate the argument that it is bad optics to be associated, in any way, with a known crook, let alone the most hated crook in (many parts of) the country. But it’s good that it’s happened, because now that it has gained a lot of attention, we can have a discussion about what Syed Saddiq’s meeting with Najib demonstrates.
You see, Syed Saddiq is an MP.
Najib is also an MP.
You voted for them.
I get it, ‘you’ who are reading this, who are probably my friends or friends of friends, or part of the more liberal and progressive bubble that I happen to be in, didn’t vote for Najib, because you’re almost certainly not from Pekan — but even if you do vote in that constituency, you would never have voted for Najib.
But Najib won with a 24,859 vote majority in his constituency (he garnered 62% of the votes). Enough Pekan voters wanted him there. Just as in my constituency of Damansara, enough of us wanted Tony Pua to be our MP that he garnered a ridiculous 106,903 vote majority.
Yes, malapportionment and gerrymandering. Yes, voter suppression elsewhere. Yes, corrupted Election Commission officials. But the results of GE14 are what they are.
And thus collectively, we the rakyat have chosen these 222 MPs, and they are the ones who govern the country, with varying levels of power to effect progress or inflict misery on the people. (Ministers have more power than government party MPs, who themselves have more power than Opposition party MPs.)
So here’s the thing that Malaysians don’t seem to grasp about democracy. Government actions and political acts are not about ‘you’, the individual, no matter how convinced you are that your view is part of the majority view. (And btw, as so many elections across the world have proved these last five years, most of us have been mistaken about what we think “the majority” thinks.)
Syed Saddiq’s job is to operate within the “rules” of the “game” of our Parlimen, and partly, that is to discuss and negotiate with other MPs. Other MPs — not just Najib. Many seem to forget that he met many other MPs from various parties.
If you do not think Syed Saddiq should be consorting with someone like Najib (or Hadi Awang, or Adham Baba, or Khairuddin At-Takiri, or Tajuddin Abdul Rahman, or Zahidi Zainul Abidin, or Hamzah Zainudin, or Annuar Musa, or Rina Harun, or Tiong King Sing, or Wee Ka Siong, or Mohameddin Ketapi, etc), you the rakyat make sure they don’t get voted in come GE15, so that they will never have the power to make decisions for the country, never have the means to enrich themselves personally through corruption, and never have the opportunity to be appointed as Ministers. And you can also ensure that Syed Saddiq will have to talk to a better class of MPs, where substantive and meaningful conversations and debates can be had about how to bring the country forward, rather than backwards.
The MPs have to do their jobs with the cards given to them. Your civic duty as the voter is to decide those cards. (And btw, to fix structural issues like gerrymandering and voter suppression, requires righteous and moral MPs to be in government so that they can be in control of the process at the right time.)
I can hear your throbbing question now: “How? It’s not like we can tell those voters in other constituencies to vote for better MPs?”
That is the big question, isn’t it?
