Dulu lain, sekarang lain (Double Standard)

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

A reminder for myself:

"O you who believe, why do you say that which you do not do? It is the most hateful in the sight of ALLAH that you say that which you do not do."

~ Holy Qur'an, Surah As-Saff (Chapter 61, The Ranks) verse 2-3

In the old days, when the National Front (BN) is the ruling coalition of all the states except Kelantan, everyone got their shares in the political power division, or simply to say that nearly all those who supported the BN got a position either in the Cabinet or State Exco, if not at least their clans or cronies got into the bandwagon. The PM would receive full support from everyone from top to the grass root cause they were all happy. Today, the great defeat in the past election left only 8 states for the BN and not enough MPs from their side, the PM has to cut the number of the ministers from 90 to 68 and worse, when it comes to the state level, those who didn't get their clans & cronies into the Cabinet will have to make sure that they will get something at the state level. Poor supporters.

In the old days (well, not that old, just a few months between the latest riot and the Bersih), riot and public assembly without the consent of the police were totally unaccepted and were considered as illegal. You just have to go to Bukit Aman if you were caught participating it. Today, when some UMNO youth did so in Penang to protest the new policy of the new Penang MB, they can get away with it. Usually a public assembly ends with a memorandum or petition to tell the related party what does the assembly demanding. However, this one in Penang ended up with water spray, dirty posters on the floor and a bit of traffic jam without any official document presented to the new MB.

In the old days (ok, I know it's just a week or so of difference), when the Sultans would only say yes to whatever the decision of the PM, today at least 3 Sultans are thinking of exercising their rights to choose the MB. In the case of Perak nearly 2 weeks ago, when DAP refused to accept the choice of the Sultan of Perak, DAP was condemned as rebellious to the royal family and should be punished severely that later Lim Kit Siang has to apologise publicly. Today, when 22 BN state assemblymen of Terengganu boycotted the sworn-in ceremony of the new MB of Terengganu, they are not punished by their own people who should actually give their royalty to the royal family. Instead, the stripping off of the UMNO membership of this poor new MB is seen as the best punishment for a person who is royal (well, at least he didn't rebel) to the royal family. The insult the UMNO gave to the royal family such as they don't know a thing about law & constitution, they don't respect the demand of the majority people in the state, etc. Still, they can get away with it cause the a party said that the constitution doesn't let the Sultan choose who he wills.

How come if a group of people is doing the same thing as the other group of people, usually the other group of people will only get into trouble while the group of people can get away with it? To understand the change of situation and double standard of our great politicians, we need to first understand the Malaysian parliamentary system which we live in.

In the Malaysian parliamentary system, there are three, theoretically, independent branches of power - legislative, executive and judiciary. The legislative branch will make laws (MPs & Senators), the executive branch will enforce the laws (Royal forces) and the judiciary branch will interpret the laws (Judges & Lawyers). There should not be any influence from any branch of power so that you don't make a law that you can get away with it. However, in practice, they are basically one big family in Malaysia simply because the head of the legislative branch (PM) has the power to advice the Agong to appoint so-and-so to be the head of any of these branches, thus gives the power of the whole country to the PM while the Agong (Head of the country) usually only have to node his head (endorse the decision) though in the constitution the Agong is the one that chooses them.

Now, looking at today's situation, there seems to be very blur separation between these three branches of power, and on top of that the power of the royal families. You choose who you want according to who actually will listen to you. If you are the PM, you choose the head of the Royal Police who will help you to catch the political opposition champions and the Chief Judge who will sentence the political opposition champions into prison so that they will not be able to fight in the election. Easy, right? Understand now? You know if all the time anyway.

ALLAHU'alam.

Wassalam.