As the results trickled in on the night of Malaysia’s 13th General Election, by most accounts the most important and most hotly contested in the nation’s history, among nearly all the Malaysians I personally know, there was a sense of frustration. Earlier, particularly in the urban areas, there was a near-celebratory feel to voting day as citizens headed to the polls. Change was in the air, they thought. Here at last was the country’s chance to break the ruling party’s decades-long hold on power and usher in a new era. But that didn’t happen, and amid stories of electoral fraud and misdeeds spreading on social media like a brush fire, the sense of ire was palpable.

Yet there was no rioting, no violence, and no excessive dramas played out in the streets. For that, the citizens of this still-young nation, as well as its leaders, are to be commended.

The “still-young” part is one I’ve repeatedly emphasised to my disenchanted local friends. Malaysia is still in its adolescence and is coming of age during a time of rapid technological and social change. I think this perhaps lends itself to people here (even expats) understandably wanting their political and societal changes to come just as rapidly as the next iteration of iPhones. However, it doesn’t usually work that way, and that’s probably for the best, as when change comes too quickly – without the evolved discipline and mindset to accompany it – the effect can be quite detrimental. Think of a city of people accustomed for decades to getting around in tuk-tuks suddenly gaining access to powerful high-performance sports cars. Or a family of limited means and little education with regard to financial matters winning the lottery and becoming rich overnight. In both of these examples, while it’s not a foregone conclusion, the risk of things going horribly awry is a very real one.

Malaysia has set itself some incredibly ambitious goals, aiming to transform from a relatively insignificant third-world country into a high-tech, high-income, fully developed nation that’s a meaningful player on the global stage – and to do so in the span of a single generation. Is it too much, too fast? Is Malaysia setting itself up for its reach to exceed its grasp?

In a blistering March 2003 speech delivered to the Oxbridge Society, then-incoming PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi made headlines by declaring that the biggest hindrance to Malaysia achieving its goals may well lie with Malaysians themselves. He said that Malaysians lacked “world-class management and working practices” and – perhaps the phrase most remembered and repeated – that the country had first-class infrastructure and a third-world mentality. He wrapped up this salvo by saying, “From poor execution and inept management to shoddy maintenance and appalling customer service, Malaysia is in danger of possessing the hardware, but little software.”

So in the decade since, has the mentality of the nation evolved to match its breathtaking pace of development? Having only been here myself for half of that timeframe, I am ill-qualified to weigh in. Perhaps the development has just been so robust and so rapid, it’s outpaced society’s ability to keep up! There are occasional signs that the mindset is changing, but such change always occurs slowly in a large population, and it will likely take more time than the seven years left on the “Vision 2020” plan to get everyone’s thinking aligned with the speedy development and modernization of their country.

And so it goes politically, as well. Though many clearly didn’t get the results they had hoped for in the election, quite a few good things can be taken from it. The country now benefits from a true two-party system more so than it ever has in the past. Race-based and religion-based politics are increasingly being recognised and rejected by voters. Malaysians are ever more engaged and energized in the political process. The rise of the Internet and, perhaps most influentially, social media, has catalysed an intense passion: Malaysians have found their voice.

Following the 2008 election, in which the ruling party lost its two-thirds majority in Parliament for the first time in the country’s history, a book was written by local journalist Kee Thuan Chye titled March 8: The Day Malaysia Woke Up. It was a watershed day in Malaysian politics, perhaps indeed the day that the electorate stirred and realised that they had a collective strength, a nascent power to shape the future of their country.

What was merely blossoming five years ago has now firmly taken root. Political engagement and activism are traits now increasingly seen in citizens here, and even in the sting of defeat for those supporting the opposition, solace must be taken by Malaysians in view of the phenomenal strides this country has taken in just one election cycle.

Four years ago, I was heading out to a nightclub with some of my local friends and was asked by one of them, “If you could change one thing about Malaysia, what would it be?” I laughed and answered, “Malaysians. You guys just don’t seem to care about anything.” But now, through the prism of the nation’s recent general election and all the strident commentary and zeal that it fuelled, I see that things are indeed changing. Malaysians increasingly feel confidence in and concern for their country, and that can only result in a country whose mentality will absolutely, one day, match its remarkable resources and modern infrastructure.

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Source: The Expat June 2013
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