Is it time for Anwar? ie. will he be elected Prime Minister when he is allowed to run in Malaysian elections next time? If so, what symbolic ripples would that send throughout the world?
Malaysia IS a small country, blessed with many natural resources as well as ethnic characters and temperaments that have enabled its uplift since it Independence. But it was interesting to see how in their last election a new party was able to make a mark and exploit even Malay confidence in the UMNO. In Turkey too, new parties, or reconfigured ones, are able to form, do well, get squashed and reform within a short time scale. There's a sociopolitical elastic that forms between people and political parties as the latter perform well. This is the fruit of the confidence that Erdogan honoured as Mayor of Istanbul, and the intention of Anwar Ibrahim and co as they compete to perform at the regional level.
In Bangladesh however something else is going on, the elastic broke sometime in the past and it is hard to re-attach. The political field is devoid of ideas and the receiver dishes resistant to incoming transmissions. Not here a new-wave multiracial or Islamic politics 2.0, here there is the politics of revenge and the revolution of the fools. Maybe there wasn't even any elastic before, the oft-repeatednational elastic might just have been an accident. Whats for sure is that its hard to start new parties and get anywhere. Emergent splinters, splinter furthe, while voting folks are too fixed to the tribes that they know. There is an upstream problem too, in thought leadership.
The 'intelligentsia' is dishonestly drunk on unearnt, unlawful earnings and not competitive in a good way. Years of providing substandard services for the people have taken their toll on their integrity and vitality. This reminds me of how vibrant women dumb down a lot and become boring upon wedding the wrong person. nuff said really. Though maybe some interesting teenager will come by in the next few years. Unfortunately Aid Baby was reared on rehydrated yak milk.
So small parties and new parties of the elections of 2008/9. Good luck with crafting a New Agenda and translating it.
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