Sunday, December 24, 2017

2018年大選前夕 - 個人聲明

近來在我社運朋友圈子里沸沸騰騰辯論著下屆大選的投票態度和動向。一邊大力鼓吹選民出來投票並且投票給希望聯盟(Pakatan Harapan)以保住國會至少三分之一的在野陣線議席;另一邊廂則批評前者的策略和注重結果的功利主義,同時對老馬加入後的希聯深感懷疑并大力抨擊。他們未必鼓勵人投廢票,但堅持投票是個人的自由,以目前的局勢現況若有人要不出來投票、投廢票或投第三黨,也不能怪他們。
我本人因為近這兩個月工作事忙,沉寂了一陣子。我覺得是時候發表自己的聲明。
1. 我不再相信人治政治。政壇上哪個陣線或政黨即使有再多的‘好人’或/和‘有能力’的人,不等同於該政黨的政綱方針。如果他們沒有推出體制上明顯的政治和司法改革,我很難被說服哪個更好(或足夠好),縱使我相信在最好的情況希聯上台執政會有小幅度的修改式改革。我有讀書,所以更有要求,不要騙我。
2. 目前希聯仍是權宜之幫,沒有明顯的政治方向,甚至沒端出值得期許的體制改革藍圖。他們代表什麼?我不清楚。我不能接受希聯的現狀,除非未來有新的正面變化。如果有人叫我為目前的希聯背書叫大家都投票給他們,對不起,我不願意。
3. 我仍會呼籲大家出來投票支持那些他們認為表現良好和有理想原則分寸的議員和政治人物。我不會投廢票(雖然我的票在梳邦再也其實一點都不‘值錢’),因為我仍滿意目前我的國和州議員。假設我的選區出現極具爭議性或負面的希聯議員,我本身很有可能就會把票投給第三黨或不投票(投給國陣目前仍難以想象...因為少有非常傑出值得支持的人選)。
4. 假設希聯執意要推薦有問題(或‘yes (wo)man’)的候選人,如果在當地不受歡迎而被懲罰落選了,那不是民意嗎?政黨難辭其咎,選民不需覺得自己為他們不認同的候選人和政黨負責。
5. 現在的球是在希聯的腳下,到底他們還要繼續分化公民社會的支持,還是能代表一個真正的希望和選擇團結凝聚各階層各社區的支持(而不是純粹是累積‘反對(國陣)票’的情緒票)。很多社運份子甚至上屆大選的民聯中堅支持者失望洩氣了。我認為其中一邊的社運者能明白另一邊的苦衷和想法,更重要的是,促使希聯在下屆大選來臨之前大力改進,把reform agenda(政改方案)拿出來。希聯的現狀是飽受另一邊社運份子批判的重點,無論你要他們怎樣改觀都不簡單,畢竟解鈴人還需繫鈴人。

對於馬哈迪領軍希聯這事...

我其實想不直接地表露出以下幾點:

1)希聯推出馬哈迪領軍迎戰下一屆大選,很可能不是最佳策略。他的形象是希聯的正與負資產--對他的印象感到負面的不能說少(畢竟他在任的時候得罪和傷害的人多)。但他目前扮演的角色正是分裂性的,從近來的中英文評論圈子裡可反映出來。

2)這樣下去,馬哈迪這個人的過去和現在肯定會是大選競選期間的主題(國陣的主攻),那麼有關國家政治改革和未來的希望論述還能展開嗎?


3)對於不太認識他的年輕人,馬哈迪真的有號召力和吸引力?


4)我正擔心著希聯的競選宣言會是民粹的...自從土團黨加盟希聯後,政策路線和發展的去向,讓我擔憂。


5)我舉例了很多國外的年輕領袖可擔當國家領導高職。我認為如果政黨敢敢推出沒有太多歷史包袱,以及能營造新政論述的年輕領袖,或許可以出奇制勝。我對505大選的觀察是,年輕人的影響力是巨大的,那時的民聯競選的驅動力(momentum)主要來自年輕人熱血地投入。


6)我也看到Jeremy Corbyn對年輕人的政治動員和競選運動的興論影響力。雖然Jeremy Corbyn不是年輕人,但他的想法絕對符合年輕人的期待和要求。所以,領袖的年齡不一定是個問題,而是他說了和做了什麼,許我們這一代和下一代什麼未來?


7)理智和情感上我不願讓國陣奪回國會的2/3席位,但這次球真的在希聯腳下...我沒有那麼大的影響力去幫他們扳回一城,就看他們的策略和智慧了。


8)我跟一些人說過了,我不大會‘賣’不太好的產品。我要怎樣賣,也得過得我自己良心這關。


9)國陣的競選宣傳可以避開納吉而不談嗎?反過來希聯亦是如此。

Saturday, December 23, 2017

政治要與年輕人接軌

截止2017年第二季,符合資格但卻沒去登記的選民總共有370萬人,其中243萬人年齡介於2130歲之間。同時參考該年齡組的國家人口統計,發現差不多每三人就有一人沒去註冊選民。到底為何這些年輕人不熱衷登記為選民,或換句話說,不准備履行最基本的民主義務?
根據默迪卡民調中心和“我的國土”(Watan)非政府組織的聯合民調顯示,高達七成的年輕人對政治冷感,主要是覺得政治太複雜和不認為自己能影響政府的決定。雖然如此,卻有大約六成的受訪者認為國家正走往錯誤方向,通貨膨脹和貪污問題是他們最關注的兩大課題。這間接說明,年輕人不是不懂或不關心政經社會課題,只是覺得被政黨政治冷落邊緣化。這種印象不是舉辦多幾場TN50國家轉型計劃公民大會就能逆轉的。

上屆大選創下了大馬史上最高投票率的記錄。年輕人曾對政改和政黨輪替滿懷熱忱和期待,“505換政府”和“Ini kali lah(就是這一次)的口號喊得特別響亮,造就在野黨聯盟取得歷來最高的得票率(51%)。可惜,由於選舉制度的不公,結果在野黨斬獲的議席席次不成正比,與‘改朝換代’擦肩而過。接下來的幾年,政局瞬息萬變:卡巴星和聶阿茲相續過世、安華入獄、民聯瓦解、希望聯盟(希聯)和誠信黨誕生、馬哈迪退出巫統成立土團黨再到政治版圖重組由馬哈迪領導在野陣線。凈選盟大集會也辦了多兩次。

年輕人的政治冷感何來?

奈何,近來在野黨舉辦的政治集會人潮異常冷清,出席者更少見年輕人。我在想,年輕一輩的,是否跟得上并明白這些政局的變化和其中涵義?當中的這些演變有哪些與他們扯上關係?他們的想法,政治人物到底有多在乎?或許年輕人看到更多的是政治人物互相攻擊或大話胡扯,加強他們對政治的負面看法進而導致冷感。

若問年輕人是否要改變,或許他們會反問:“改變是什麼?”或“到底會有什麼改變?”。在野黨若認真,平時應該多集思廣益咨詢專家和收集民間的看法,并好好地作政策研究,以務求能端出進步、有方向與全方位的政改綱領。有了政策共識後,政治人物才能清楚并仔細地為選民勾畫政治改革的願景,說服選民為何要投選支持他們而不是為了反對另一方。所以,不止是年輕人,其他年齡階層的選民也很想知道,希聯承諾要帶來的改變會是什麼?比如說,在經濟、教育、交通、公共醫療、環境土地、言論自由、司法、公共服務官僚體制等,到底與國陣現有的政策有多大的分別?若政權改變,希联雖然要能在執政的短期內解決一些急迫的關鍵課題,但切忌為了討好各方而變得民粹迷失方向,更不好為了短期的政治利益而罔顧國家社會的中長期的發展和利益。

新政要有新臉孔新形象

除了政治改革的承諾,領導人的形象代表和價值觀也是許多年輕人觀望的重點。當一方提要推出‘新政’,而他們的領導整容卻由許多舊臉孔掛帥,似乎很難取信他人。試問當今年輕人,目前由馬哈迪領導的在野黨陣營,有沒有給他們帶來任何的政治期待和想象空間?
環顧近年來的國際政治,不少較為年輕的政治人物成功勝選擔任國內最高民選領導人。舉例來說,今年上任的就有37歲來自工黨的新西蘭總理傑辛達·凱特(Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern)41歲來自左派綠色聯盟的冰島總理卡特琳·雅克思(Katrín Jakobsdóttir)39歲來自‘共和前進’黨的法國總統埃馬紐埃爾·馬克龍(Emmanual Macron),以及2015年勝選時才43歲來自自由黨的加拿大總理賈斯丁·杜魯道(Justin Trudeau)。這些年輕領袖的冒現也順勢回應了當前選民欲看到政治新氣象和改變的渴望。同時,這也符合當地年輕人的政治想象和要求,期望他們的聲音更能貼近政治主流。

當然,年輕人不一定要支持較年輕的政治領袖。英國的工黨領袖傑里米·科爾賓(Jeremy Corbyn)就是一個好例子。他積極遊走全國聆聽并貼近大眾特別是年輕一輩,多次現身在年輕人為主的場合(比如說搖滾演唱會)。這種雙向和坦然的政見溝通能賦權選民,然後政治人物所提的想法和政策才會踏實接地以及與人民日常生活有關聯(relevance)。這不正彰顯民主的可貴嗎?

政治要與生活有關聯

所以要解除年輕人的政治冷感,就得讓政治打破藩籬重新與年輕人接軌,與他們的生活保持關聯。朝野政黨到底如何讓年輕人對政治有所期待和想象,覺得自己的心聲會被聆聽和尊重,并擁有發揮影響力的空間?若國內政治仍是幾位政黨高層在密室換馬的權力遊戲,很難怪民眾感到無奈和被疏離,甚至質疑政黨輪替會帶來的實質改變。


我不由得想象若由年輕領袖諸如努魯依莎等新形象領軍希聯迎戰下一屆大選,會不會更能掀起千層風浪,鼓舞動員更多年輕人積極參與助選?年輕人的精力以及在家庭和社區內的影響力,不容小覷。政治再不與年輕人接軌,難有改變。


刊登于《東方日報》東方文薈版2017年12月23日

Monday, December 18, 2017

The appeal of Islamic Democrats in Malaysia

TWO weeks ago, I participated in an international conference in Kuala Lumpur organised by the Istanbul Network, a group of think-tank leaders from Muslim majority countries.
During the Q& A session, I posed the following question to the panel: Why should non-Muslims support an Islamist party, whether in a Muslim-majority country such as Malaysia or in a country where Muslims are in the minority, if the party in question only has an exclusively religious agenda for the Muslim community? I did not get a direct response to the question, and this still lingers in my mind after the conference.
To be fair, many distinguished speakers presented many good papers which examined the history of democratic transitions, outlining the relationship between Islam and democracy and further looking at the socio-economic undercurrents behind such transitions.
Case studies on Islamic political parties and movements in different countries were also discussed. I appreciate the evolution in certain countries such as Tunisia and Turkey that witnessed political transitions from an Islamist party to a party of Islamic Democrats, in Ennahda and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) respectively.
One fundamental difference between many Islamist parties around the world and Malaysian ones, is that Malaysia has a large proportion of non-Muslims in the population which the Islamist parties, like it or not, need to interact with.
If an Islamist party only appeals to the Muslim community in Malaysia, it would restrict its political influence to parts of the country with very few non-Muslims.
This was the situation faced by PAS in the past when its influence was mostly limited to the northern and east coast states in Peninsular Malaysia.
For a party to win elections at the federal level in Malaysia, it has to be part of a coalition which has a broad support across all ethnic groups. Even if an Islamist party like PAS only wants to appeal to the Muslim community, its views and positions must be acceptable to other parties within the coalition, some of whom will definitely represent the views and aspirations of non-Muslims in the country.
Unless an Islamist party wants to stand apart from any political coalition, it has to take into account the perspective of non-Muslim voters. This is one important yardstick of democratic transitions, which is the consideration of the diverse voices of the people, even from those who do not support the party / coalition in power.
Given that the Muslim community does not live in isolation, the positive and negative impact of policy difference and public opinion have to be resolved by ‘Ijma’ or the consensus of the masses.
The concept itself already has ‘bottom-up’ democratic elements and it does not imply majority rule but a need to consider as well as respect minority rights. However, consensus building often needs reference to some form of common denominator among different community groups.
Thus, it is not an issue when an Islamist party brings in Islamic values in policy discussion, if the values are a common denominator shared and understood among all the communities. For that, the doctrine of Maqasid al-Shari’a has been well-received and applied in some places in the Muslim world as the guiding principle in response to multiple issues concerning public interest, ranging from economy, environment, health and even human rights.
This shows that religion could be a big part of the political discourse if it stays aligned and relevant to people’s daily life and societal functions, be it Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism or other religions. No religious practices or values should be forcefully imposed on the people, whether they are believers or not.
In my opinion, what sows distrust among communities in Malaysia in present day, is the allegation or perception that one gets differential or preferential treatment over others. If an Islamist party is going to pit Muslims against non-Muslims, and in doing so, creates a siege mentality among the former, the ensuing result is a negative campaign which is based on fear and discrimination. This cannot go
far in winning over the middle ground which includes a sizeable non-Muslim population.
Worse still, this reinforces the negative perception that an Islamist party tries to divide the people based on religion and treat them differently. Thus, such appeals which are premised on religious exclusivism and exerting obligations and values on others, could prove to be detrimental to social cohesion and nation building.
However, this really needs not to be the case. Political Islam, as any other movement, has plenty of diverse ideas and means to achieve its goals. Post-Islamism is emerging as a reaction to the perceived failure of many ruling Islamist politics in the Muslim world at addressing fundamental citizen needs and expectations such as jobs, education and the provision of basic public services including rubbish collection and access to clean water.
Given that the world has liberalised through recent decades via the information technology revolution, any attempt to control thoughts and ideas by using the religious monopolist, puritan and statist approach will surely be meet with strong resistance. The changing trend in the socio-demographics of many of these Muslim countries will raise more questions on the views and roles of an Islamist party, especially among the younger generation who are growing up in an environment where information and networking is much more accessible compared to before.
Presently in Malaysia, Parti Amanah Negara represents the mainstream political variant of Islamic Democrats. I see the vast potential and the positive impact that their political movement can bring to Malaysia. Hopefully they will present and bring out a more wide-ranging and progressive political Islam discourse in Malaysia, to showcase that Islamic values could be universal, inclusive and meaningful to all.
After all, Christian Democrats in the western world have proved to be able to command broad support and govern in fairness to all citizens, why not Islamic Democrats? In that sense, why should non-Muslims NOT vote for such ideals from Islamic Democrats who can truly represent them?

Friday, December 15, 2017

Health check on the 2018 Budget






LAST Friday after prime minister and finance minister Najib Razak tabled the 2018 Budget, which he dubbed ‘the Mother of all Budgets’, my friends asked me what I thought about the budget allocation given to the Ministry of Health (MOH).
In my previous column article, I justified the reasons why the MOH should be given a larger budget allocation amounting to over RM28.5 billion (or >15% growth rate). The good news is that under the 2018 Budget, the MOH budget allocation has indeed increased to RM26.6 billion, albeit at slower growth rate of 7.2%.
As is the case with the Budget itself, this year’s Health allocation is historically largest and takes the highest share (9.5%) relative to the total Budget since 2009. In response to the announcement, both the health minister Dr S. Subramaniam and the health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah publicly expressed their satisfaction with the budget allocation. On a personal note, I was disappointed by the shortfall of about RM2 billion or half of the growth rate that I was expecting to see. As the saying goes: ‘the devil is in the details’, it is worthwhile to see if the government has genuinely put the Rakyat’s money where its mouth is. 
New development, bigger budget
From a first glance at the headlined items, it appears that the government is heeding the call to allocate more funds towards development expenditure. About half a billion ringgit, or a 37.9% increase in budget allocation, has been channelled to development, of which RM212 million was added to the budget for upgrade and expansion hospital facilities. Purchase of medical equipment and vehicles was topped up by RM244 million (Figure 1). It is certainly a welcome move and necessary action after the tragic fire incident at the Sultanah Aminah Hospital that took six lives last year.



In his Budget speech, Najib mentioned the fix for the wiring systems and even ambitiously announced plans to build new hospitals and wards (including one for the Pulau Pinang Hospital). Strangely, merely RM2.7 million in additional funding has been allocated to achieve these plans.
By right, we should be placing more emphasis on the operating budget, since it takes up 93.1% (RM 24.7 billion), a lion’s share of the total MOH budget. Over half, or 60.9%, of the operating budget is reserved for the salaries and wages for a workforce of 268,014 in total. The number of positions in the Health Ministry has increased by 30.2% from 2010-2018, while the amount paid for emoluments in 2018 has risen 144.6% compared to 2010. The health workforce is crucial in ensuring high standards of healthcare delivery, but this rise is only justifiable if the emolument rise converts to higher pay to retain quality talent.
Cut back on funding for supplies and services
Departments under the Medical Care (Perubatan) category will receive the largest amount RM13.2 billion, or a 53.4% of the total operating budget, followed by the Public Health (Kesihatan Awam) category (RM4.7 billion or 19.1%) (Figure 2). Worryingly, although the total sum of allocations for these two categories has increased compared to 2017, most of it is channelled towards emolument. Despite the functional importance of these two categories, the government has opted to cut back on funding for supplies and services for both categories (Figure 3). For Medical Care, the allocation for supplies and services shrank from RM5.17 billion in 2015 to RM3.92 billion in 2018, a difference of RM1.26 billion!


MP for Kampar Dr Ko Chung Sen rightly criticised the government on the RM65 million reduction in the allocation for the pharmacy and supplies division. It is a peculiar decision, given that many members of the public who engage the services of MOH hospitals or health clinics have long complained about the frequency of drug shortages. A reduced allocation certainly does not help to alleviate the drug demand burden. Therefore, when Najib announced that a sum of RM2.5 billion would be allocated for medical supplies and RM1.6 billion for consumable and medical support items, was he actually referring to an increased or reduced allocation?
Public health concerns
The other worrying budget reduction is related to the Disease Control and Public Health Pharmacy and Supplies divisions, which will receive RM22.4 million and RM35.6 million less respectively in 2018 for services and supplies, compared to this year.
This reduction is especially worrying for the Disease Control division, which has seen a declining share of allocations from RM402 million in 2011 to RM159 million in 2018. Unless one can prove that the services provided by this division have become substantially cost-effective, the decision to slash funding is controversial, in the backdrop of dengue and malaria outbreaks as well as the re-emerging threat of various vaccine-preventable infectious diseases.
Lastly, it is definitely timely to tackle the non-communicable diseases (NCD) via the KOSPEN programme, and the RM30 million allocation will prove useful to carry out a nationwide campaign. On the other hand, the Malaysia Health Promotion Board (MySihat) is a statutory body under the MOH that is also focused on health promotion, however it has received RM5.5 million annual budget for the past 3 years and past campaigns have been criticised for being rather ineffective.
It would make sense for KOSPEN to collaborate with MySihat for the NCD campaign and in doing so, hopefully they will be able to live up the programme name: ‘Healthy Community Empowers the Nation’.