Will a two-party system prevent democracy from flourishing?
We supposed we have been overly focusing on one thing, to take down the current Barisan Nasional (BN) government which has been ruling our nation for more than 55 years now. Yes, with more than 55 years of power abuse, corruptions, mismanagement of public funds and racist politics, enough is enough but it does not mean that the choice of our people should be limited to only a two-party system? It looks like everyone of us has really forgotten what we are really looking for, that is democracy and social justice.
In pursuing for a democratic reform, why do we have to limit our people's choice by opting for a two-party system? A real democracy is a platform for for a multi-party system. The current BN government is not performing by our people's expectation and we are now urging the voters to opt for the opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat (Pakatan) instead, in order to seek for a change in the government and to wipe out corruption, power abuse and various mismanagement of public funds.
So, in order to allow Pakatan to take up this new role in Putrajaya and then we transform BN to the opposition side and when Pakatan is not performing during its 5-year term and BN is voted back into power in 5 years time, this is just simply allowing the two parties to exchange their seats every 5 years. Then, what about the other political parties which are not associated with the two coalitions? Are we just wanting some sort of simple choice to be made by simply ignoring democracy at large? Have we forgotten that we are supposed to ensure democracy to flourish instead of limiting the space and choice?
The people must also realize that in a multi-party system, it protects them from the politicians and to prevent political domination from taking place. The multi-party system gives the people more options. In doing this, politicians will fear of being voted out instead of letting them to think that they would be voted back to power in 5 years time as there are only two parties in place inside this political circle.
Multi-party system would ensure that politicians will not threaten our people and would be more sensitive to the needs and feelings of the voters instead. If BN is not performing, then we vote in Pakatan and if Pakatan is also not doing what we are expecting, are we going to vote BN again based on their previous negative track record? Everything would be back to square one then.
What if both BN and Pakatan are not performing as per our people's expectation? We should therefore go for other options, isn't it so? We have Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM), Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM), Green Party of Malaysia (The Greens), Parti Kesejahteraan Insan Tanah Air (KITA), Parti Cinta Malaysia (PCM), State Reform Party (STAR), Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP), Parti Ikatan Bangsa Malaysia (Ikatan), Human Rights Party (HRP) and we can also vote in more independents who are really committed and not being tied up to any party interests.
What we are trying to say here is, the people should make their options open if they really wanted to be effective voters and to be the employers of these politicians instead of otherwise. The people are the boss and the politicians should be the public servants answerable to the people.
By allowing only the BN and Pakatan to go around in a two-party system would only allow these two coalitions to dominate the political scene in our nation forever without giving the opportunities to the other political parties to offer their stance and to serve our people.
In this case, is the two-party system really that democratic? Once Pakatan takes over the helm at Putrajaya after the 13th general elections, will they be able to enlarge the democratic platform by allowing more participation from other political parties to come forward to share their ideas and efforts in our nation building.
