In today's Malaysia, there are a lot of people complaining. Be it about weather, gas prices, or even the quality of the roadside nasi lemak. But unbeknownst to most foreigners, one of the things we complain the most about (if not the most) is our politics. Our politics can be perceived as many things to us Malaysians; entertainment, boring old people talking, or a pain in the ass. But one thing we can all agree on is that the people in office are not doing their job of serving the rakyat at all. When was the last time you've heard of a politician mingling with his constituents, going down to the scene and giving out care packages (ones for the camera don't count), or doing anything at all to fix Selangor's water supply? Exactly. None.
What if I told you of a simple solution that will remedy most, if not all of these problems? That we will no longer be the pawns of the political elite, and instead be the individuals that we are? That Selangor's water issue will finally be fixed?
Excited? I thought so. So I'll lay it out for you: monarchy.
"Monarchy? What?! What about democracy?" Calm down, Joe. Let me explain. As you probably already know, Malaysia has 9 kings, all of whom rotate the position of Yang-di Pertuan Agong (or king) among themselves every 5 years. Now, both this and the hereditary position of each individual Sultan is actually a very good thing. Why? Because of one simple reason: stability. In a democracy, people compete for the top posts using elections. Whoever has the most votes, wins. See the problem? Because of the uncertain nature of a democracy, the parties who win often have to rebuild the power structure left behind by the previous party. This is why in a democracy, you tend to see parties not doing anything for the first years in power, as they always have to build a power base before they can actually get around to governing. The fact that parties are ideologically driven tends to not help, as they would need an entirely new power structure in order to carry out policies according to their ideology. And by the time the party can start making new laws, which is usually at the end of their term, the people would have already been dissatisfied by the lack of results, and vote that government out in the next election. You see? Democracy is very inefficient in this regard, since the ruling parties can never get anything done.
That is why when Mahathir assumed power in 1981, he was able to actually give out results, since the BN coalition has a power structure rooted so deep that their position in politics was pretty secured, which led to rapid development and Mahathir's 22 year tenure.
In a monarchy, the only possible successor is the next-in-line, who is the crown prince in the states, and the next senior sultan when it comes to the Federation as a whole. This will ensure a very smooth succession, as the previous power structure expects a successor, and does not have to be destroyed. Furthermore, because monarchs are not beholden by ideology most of the time, they can actually rule pragmatically and not according to ideology, since the very nature of an ideology leads to people having great loyalties to it, so they tend to follow it to the letter, even if it doesn't work.
Of course, that is not to mean that Malaysia should be an absolute monarchy; the way our monarchy works means that an absolute monarchy would tend to overlap with the powers of the other Sultans, assuming that all the Sultans would be made absolute monarchs in their own states. If only the Yang-di Pertuan Agong is an absolute monarch, then we would most likely see a scramble for the throne, which is the very thing we're trying to avoid. Therefore, I propose a non-democratic, non-partisan semi-constitutional monarchy in a similar vein to Morocco and Jordan.
Even if you're not an anti-democrat like me, there's still plenty of reason to want a monarchy. We in Malaysia govern by the parliamentary system. In the absence of a monarchy, we would have a figurehead president who was likely a politician himself in his previous career. This is problematic since even though he's supposed to be neutral and serve as a symbol for all citizens, past political ties and personal friendships will most likely hinder his decision making; in short, he will most likely only favor his party most of the time. A king, who
"Why not switch to a presidential system like the US?" Sure, let's restructure our whole government, which could prove disastrous since our political environment is not suited to such a system, and have a system that only supports two parties. Yay democracy!
So my message to all Malaysians is this: if you would like to see freedom, liberty, and equality in Malaysia, then please, abandon your faith in democracy and return to monarchy. Trust me, the country will thank you.
