Ketokohan Tunku Zain Al'Abidin ibni
Tuanku Muhriz dalam memperkasakan demokrasi dan ekonomi sebagai
presiden dan pengasas Institut Hal Ehwal Demokrasi dan Ekonomi
(Institute of Democracy and Economic Affairs – IDEAS) mengingatkan
saya kepada ketokohan seorang pemimpin muda yang hebat tetapi semakin
dilupakan oleh generasi kini iaitu Undang Rembau ke 18.
Kisah ketokohan dan ketegasan Undang
Rembau ke 18 di
http://rozmal.blogspot.com/2013/02/pemimpin-yang-perlu-dicontohi.html
An opportunity to quash rumours
Friday, February 01
by Tunku ’Abidin Muhriz
NORMALLY I wake up early on Sundays so
I can play tennis with my buddies but last Sunday, I was woken up
earlier than usual because my phone was buzzing incessantly.
Bleary-eyed, I opened my inbox to read the messages. “IS IT TRUE!?”
they screamed. “What is your response to this???” they quizzed.
“We want your statement on this TODAY,” they pressured.
As has now been widely reported, Tunku
Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim had said at an event in Seremban the
previous evening that DAP had approached me to be a candidate for
them in the next general election.
I must say that I was not at the
ceramah and do not know the circumstances in which Tunku Aziz said
this. Tunku Aziz and I share many friends, and he has always been
friendly to me in person.
He wrote a generous foreword for my
book Abiding Times, and invited me to launch a book written by his
brother (Memali: A Policeman Remembers by Tunku Muszaffar Shah).
Since then, I have seen him at British Malaysian Society events and
numerous panel discussions where the same congeniality has been
maintained.
Anyway, the leader of the Opposition in
Negri Sembilan, DAP’s Anthony Loke, then made a statement admitting
that a meeting did in fact take place.
I was playing squash at the time, and
decided that it was time to end these backhand volleys with a
cross-court drop shot.
That is when I issued my statement,
which was carried by this newspaper. Of course, long before all of
this took place, there had been rumours that the son of a Ruler would
be joining a political party before the next general election.
Eventually, one did — in October,
Tengku Paduka Sri Raja Tengku Ibrahim ibni Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin
Shah, son of the late Sultan of Terengganu and former Yang di-Pertuan
Agong, joined PAS, having once been active in Semangat 46 in the 90s.
I recently met him at a wedding, which
was also attended by Tengku Datuk Sri Azlan ibni Sultan Abu Bakar,
another former Semangat 46 prince-politician who later joined Umno.
He served as deputy transport minister and is still MP for Jerantut.
By coincidence, we were all sitting
close together and had an extremely interesting chat about issues
concerning the future of the country.
I won’t reveal what they told me, but
I told them that back in school, at the age of ten, I had drawn “S46”
logos in my homework book, because they were obviously the good guys.
Semangat 46 was the last political
party that was supported by the Father of Independence.
Today, unfortunately, I see no
political party in this country that truly espouses the spirit of
Merdeka in a convincing and consistent manner.
My hope, ever since I signed anti-ISA
petitions while at the London School of Economics and Political
Science, to the formation of the Institute for Democracy and Economic
Affairs, has always been to see our country become the democracy it
was promised to be on Merdeka Day in 1957, a vision reaffirmed on
Malaysia Day in 1963.
That there is no political party wholly
worth supporting is not necessarily cause for despair, though.
As I have written many times, there are
plenty of admirable individual politicians across the parties, which
is why I keep banging on about how important it is to vote for
candidates and not just look at the party logo.
Perhaps more importantly, it has become
clear that party politics is not the only platform from which to
advocate change, because civil society in our country has grown
spectacularly in recent years.
The frequency and normality of debates,
seminars, petitions, rallies and of course, provocative articles, is
constantly increasing, and this in itself is an achievement for
Malaysian democracy.
No doubt many friends have chosen to
enter party politics, and I bear no grudges for that, but it is
crucial for some activists to remain on the outside as well.
This is particularly important as once
an individual enters a political party, there is always the
possibility that they might be subjected to constraints, waylaid by
internal party matters, subjected to intense jealousy and tempted by
corruption.
The role of civil society is essential
in scrutinising their actions and advocating reforms which party
members cannot. That is why I will continue doing what I started
before my father was elected Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negri Sembilan.
I will not be joining a political party this time, so I’m sorry to
my acquaintances who were asking me to approve various projects as
menteri besar of Negri Sembilan.
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