Pragmatism for the Powerless

Context

After a week of unnecessary speculation, the Pardons Board finally announced that Najib would not be pardoned, but rather have his jail term reduced from 12 years to 6 years¹ and his fine reduced from RM210 mil to RM50 mil. As you might imagine, this didn't go down very well with anyone, notwithstanding the fact that many also felt some relief that the worst case scenario of Najib getting an outright pardon didn't come to pass.

Here's how I processed the news.

• I felt really let down
• I accepted my powerlessness
• I decided to be pragmatic

I felt really let down

No point trying to lie about it - my initial reaction was definitely an overwhelming sense of anger and disappointment. More than the double standards for a kayangan or the sacrifices made my thousands of people who literally went to the streets to protest 1MDB, it was the fact that this was happening under the Reformasi government. After Zahid's DNAA, this really felt (to a Reformasi supporter) like a knife twisting in your gut.

Something I didn't always appreciate but have now come to really be very aware of is the extent to which being stuck on social media can massively amplify your sense of hopelessness and depression in these situations. The news is going viral, you're watching tweet after angry tweet come streaming in and observing in horror as the world seems to be catching fire. Some people are cursing, some are swearing that they will never vote for a certain party again, and some are heralding the end of the innocence or Reformati as people going for black humour would say.

Nowadays, the first thing I do in such a scenario is to shut off all social media and go back to first principle questions.

• Is my understanding of the facts correct?
• Why am I angry?
• Have I reacted too quickly?
• How does this change my decisions going forward?

This process led me to...

I accepted my powerlessness

Major caveat here - if you're a social activist who plays the game across decades, then you're certainly not powerless. After all, the watershed election of 2018 was certainly (at least in part) due to massive mobilisation of civil society across a span of 2 decades.²

Howevever, as noble as that cause may be, it's not how I choose to live my life. All power to those who fight the good fight, but that's not me. I prefer to channel my patriotism into more mundane matters - in particular those relating to the goals I am pursing in my career as a civil servant at present.

This means accepting that certain things are simply out of my hands. In this particular case, there are circles within circles within circles - even your average member of Parliament will likely have very little ability to influence matters. Unless you're a sitting member of the Pardons Board, an influential Royal, or the Prime Minister/Deputy, there's probably nothing you can say or do that would have stopped this series of unfortunate events.

Once I internalised this reality of powerlessness, I actually felt better. What happened wasn't my fault, and it's probably not something I should spend too much mental energy on. Not because it doesn't matter, but because me thinking and emoting about it is going to have absolutely zero effect on the reality that this has happened, and we have to live with it.

Therefore...

I decided to be pragmatic

Taking stock of the entire series of events from 2018 (when Najib lost power) to 2020 (when he was first convicted) to today, one realises that not everything is broken.

It is important to distinguish between the legislative (Parliament, and the constitutional Monarch), judiciary (courts) and executive (government, led by Cabinet and PM). There was no lacuna in our laws allowing Najib to walk free. The judiciary did their part by reviewing the evidence, deciding that Najib was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and subsequently upholding this decision through various courts of appeal. And in this particular case, no institution of government was severely compromised to achieve the outcome.

It was the Pardons Board - an existing institution in Malaysia's legal process whose existence can be justified as a check on the judiciary - who made this decision. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the decision, I feel that it is not correct to infer a total collapse of the nation purely because of it. Many parts of this process (from 2018 until the present) went as an impartial observer would hope.

Therefore, especially as a a civil servant, I'm not giving up. The struggle to make our nation better continues, and I will continue giving my best to the government of the day.

And hey - sometimes, the powerless just have to be pragmatic and live to fight another day. Tomorrow we'll wake up, and life will go on.³ In a few months' time, this will be a distant memory, just like Zahid's DNAA that has faded into the fabric of ‘‘Yeah, okay, it happened''.

Malaysia is worth it. That belief remains.