Steven Sim

Also published here: http://dapsy.dappg.org/?p=114#more-114

Book Review: Speaking For The Reformasi Generation (REFSA, Kuala Lumpur, 2009) by Liew Chin Tong

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times – that best describe the times we are in, at least for us here in Malaysia, especially in the period between 1998-2008.

In the past decade, our Nation collectively have gone through a unique experience of turmoils and growth; the 1997 Asia financial crisis, the unprecedented 1998 Reformasi movement, the rise and fall of Mahathir Mohammad, the longest-serving Prime Minister, the ripple effect of post-911 global paranoid and finally, the 308 political tsunami which eventually saw the end of the rule of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the rise of Najib Tun Razak amidst controversies.

Speaking for the Reformasi Generation (SFTRG) is a book which speaks of the events that marked this past decade. Author Liew Chin Tong is arguably the emerging voice of this generation. A scholar, political strategist and now Member of the Malaysian Parliament, Liew who was a college student during the 1998 Reformasi period, could not have been in a better position to, so to speak, speak for the Reformasi Generation.

The Reformasi Generation
The Reformasi Generation (R-Generation) is roughly the Generation Y of Malaysia. Emerging from the confused modernism of Gen X, the R-Generation is in effect the real heir of the Baby Boomers, if only by our shared commitment to counterculture movement.

We grew up in the era of Mahathirism, of mega projects and political hegemony. Liew echoed many young people of our times when he wrote, “We were a generation growing up without knowing any other Prime Minister except Dr Mahathir”.

Mahathir gave this generation unprecedented access to the Internet, and therefore access to a source of infinite ideologies and thoughts, via his Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) pet project. It was Mahathir who gave this generation its most revered icon of counterculture, Anwar Ibrahim when he paved the way for the latter in national politics and eventually appointed him as his Deputy in 1993. And it was also Mahathir who gave rise the opportunity for the birth of the Reformasi movement when he sacked Anwar Ibrahim in 1998.

Ironically, it was Mahathir and his Mahathirism which the R-Generation rebelled against the most.

Biography of A Nation in Transition
Liew was not merely a passive observer of the events in the last ten years. As political aide to a number of key DAP leaders such as Teresa Kok, Fong Kui Lun, DAP Supremo Lim Kit Siang and eventually, to the Secretary-General of DAP and the future Chief Minister of Penang, Lim Guan Eng, Liew wrote from the perspective of a participant, drawing from his personal encounters with the issues and players of the political scene of our country.

In a way, SFTRG reads like an autobiography of this young emerging political leader of our country. It probed into the author’s mind on thoughts ranging from our national history to economics to politics to social issues such as gender, housing, foreign workers and public transportation.

But on the other hand, SFTRG is also the biography of a Nation in transition. For Malaysia, just like for the R-Generation, the period between 1998-2008 was a period where we were going through late adolescence into another level of maturity. After more than two decades of authoritarian-rule of Mahathir where fundamental freedoms such as intellectual freedom, press freedom and freedom of association were greatly suppressed, the Nation and along with her, the R-Generation thirsted for these dynamics.

In his own way, Liew had managed to chronicle this transition, beginning with his own stories of participating in the Reformasi street protests and then proceeding to using his skills as a political scholar to analyse the different events and milestones which eventually shape our Nation in her present form. For a generation often muffled from history other than those portraying the ruling UMNO-Barisan Nasional Government in positive light, Liew the scholar-analyst re-tell for us history beyond official history.

Thoughts on PAS
One of the most interesting sections of the SFTRG must be the part on Parti Islam Se-Malaysia or PAS. UMNO, in order to win votes had always painted PAS as the extremist Islamic party and DAP as the extremist Chinese socialist party. By portraying its political opponents as religious far-right and communalist far-left, UMNO had managed to sell itself as the moderate centre party, although there were not a few times when it tried to out-Islam PAS to win Malay votes.

Liew’s perspective into PAS therefore, is a very much welcomed fresh air. He was not only writing as a scholar whose main research was on the Islamic party, but also as a leader of DAP, a party which was demonize by UMNO along with PAS and a party which had bitter-sweet relationship with PAS since their partnership in the Barisan Alternatif (BA) in 1999.

It is interesting to note that at the end of the section on PAS, Liew identified himself not only with, but as one of the Erdogans, a progressive section of the Islamic party. This perhaps is a glimpse of a new era of co-operation between DAP and PAS even as both parties struggled to form the political alternative to UMNO-Barisan Nasional.

A Generation Where Change Is Possible
The R-Generation had enjoyed the benefits of unprecedented wealth from the rapid modernization of the Mahathir era. Yet, precisely because of this reason, we are more exposed to progressive political idea of rights and therefore are more keenly aware of the corruptions of UMNO-Barisan Nasional’s half-a-century rule.

From the perspective of R-Generation, Liew’s diagnosis of our Nation’s problem is acute. In his own words, “our problems are much more serious than contesting in elections and winning political matches. They are becoming permanent, and the country is caught holding the short end of the stick as the international economy evolves in ways that threaten to make us a failed state.”

But the R-Generation is a generation of change, it is after all a generation of “reform”.

Liew spoke for many of us when he wrote, “the essential differences between us – those who desire reforms – and them – those who favour the status quo and thus decline – are that we crave new ideas and knowledge, we go beyond the usual racial caricatures and embrace not only all Malaysians but also the world, and we believe that essential change is possible”.

Steven Sim
The author was formerly Special Assistant to Penang State Exco for Youth and Sports and is currently taking time off to pursue his post-graduate degree. In 1998 during the Reformasi movement, he was in Form Four.

Speaking For The Reformasi Generation is available for purchase at http://bit.ly/AohlF