Malaysia Matters Podcast

As problems continue to compound regarding food inflation and supply, one might think that a greater part of Malaysian reporting would revolve around such an issue. But scandal is the order of the day and seemingly the topic most often presented to Malaysia’s electorate.  

Amidst the announcement today from  Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi  that he would step down in 2010, accusations against his successor of conflict of interest, sex, and murder continue to dominate media coverage.  

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak and friends today refuted accusations of any involvement with the disappearance of the detective who had implicated him as allegedly having had a sexual relationship with a brutally murdered Mongolian woman. One of Najib’s top political aides is on trial for the murder, along with two state bodyguards. The detective and his family were reported to the police as missing this past Saturday.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has himself been accused of sodomy - (again.)  But Farish A. Noor has an interesting take on this; suggesting that Anwar might benefit as his support will be further fueled if there is a  perception that he is getting railroaded as they felt he did the last time he was accused of this.

Should the investigation on Anwar give any signs of bias this time round, many analysts expect the public’s dissatisfaction with the Barisan-led government to increase rather than decrease, thereby adding to Anwar’s popularity and appeal to the masses.

But in one other crucial respect, this latest development also carries a negative note to it in the sense that it has returned Malaysian society back to the older mode of personalised politics where the cult of leadership and political heroes are paramount. For decades Malaysian politics has been configured and defined by strong leaders whose dominant personalities ruled over the land and whose figures loomed large over the Malaysian landscape. The elections of March 2008 offered the faint promise that after decades of sectarian race-based politics, Malaysia’s political culture may have finally evolved beyond personality cults and hero-worship.

Now that Anwar is back in the limelight and grabbing the headlines for all the wrong reasons, it would appear as if the movement for change is once again forced to address the plight of a single leader – at a time when the country is facing the challenge of an economic slowdown and when international financial agencies like Morgan Stanley has indicated that some RM330 billion (US 90 Billion) has been dissipated from Malaysia through corruption. Malaysians seem to relish scandals and controversy to no end, but many Malaysians are also asking whether such scandals are a convenient way to distract the public’s attention from the harder real issues of daily governance and Malaysia’s economic survival in the future. For now, however, Anwar’s plight will ensure that the dominant theme of Malaysian politics will return to the narrative of heroes and martyrs, temporarily at least.

Crazy stuff. All that we need now is a blue dress thrown in the mix so that an American audience can relate to this madness as well.