Nov 13, 2000

Rais Yatim on US democracy

It is hardly surprising that the Malaysian government (through its Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Dr Rais Yatim) would grab the opportunity to criticise the US democratic system, as it is still smarting over US criticisms of the conviction and jailing of ex-deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.

But, as always, Rais demonstrates his inability to fully understand the issues at hand or to argue cogently to defend the indefensible flaws of institutions of democracy, especially the judiciary, in Malaysia.

I do not think that there is any student of politics anywhere in the world that would say the US system is without flaw. American scholars and jurists themselves have for decades now been debating the system, with the view of, among others, to eliminating the possible "contradictions" between the number of popular votes and the number of electoral colleges carried by a candidate.

Other systems too - such as the constituency simple majority system of the Westminster model and the proportional representation system of the "European" model - each has its own "basic" weaknesses. It is this weakness, for example, that gave Barisan Nasional just slightly more than 50 percent of the popular vote but retain its more than two-thirds majority control of the parliament, giving the coalition great capability for making laws.

No, it's not such "basic flaws" of the Malaysian electoral system that Malaysia has been criticised for. It is the unfair and undemocratic conduct of the electoral process that was criticised. Rais has the right to retain the smugness on his face if he can look at us straight in the eye and say that the conduct of the elections in Malaysia is anywhere near the way the US elections are conducted. Otherwise, the minister should make a hasty retreat into his own cocoon in shame.

While the US system is undeniably flawed, the recent US election was at least characterised by the existence of free and fair media - even among the media organisations that endorsed certain candidates - by the absence of corruption and vote buying, by the absence of intimidation of voters by the police and other law enforcement institutions, by the absence of abuse of state and departmental facilities by candidates from the party in power - and many more abuses of the democratic process that have become common practice in Malaysia.

As long as this great difference between the way the electoral process is conducted in the two countries continues, I think the US has the "moral" right to lecture us for our government's abuses of our own democratic institutions.

Now people are demonstrating on the streets in Palm Beach, Florida. They are demanding not only a recount but a revote in the election in that district because they feel that they have been misled by a poorly designed ballot paper.

Rais and Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad must be wondering why the "disruption of public order" is not quickly resolved through methods routinely employed in Malaysia. Here in Malaysia the authorities would simply bring in the riot police, beat up the demonstrators, spray chemical-laced water on them, keep and torture them in jail as remand prisoners, and charge them in court for participating in illegal assembly - and accuse them of being agents of the US' "flawed" democratic government for good measure.

Rustam A Sani
Gombak