Steven Sim

After researching and writing on the 2010 Budget from the political perspective, I told Joshua that we should provide a theological commentary on it as well. Joshua and I had attempted collaboration a couple of times before to write on different issues but we did not manage to complete them, largely due to the geographical distance and our own personal commitments.

This time around, although Joshua was extremely busy with his revision for exams and I was in the middle of juggling between a new partnership and my political work (additional research work as Parliament is in session with debate on budget taking place), we managed to pull off a 4500-word essay (including footnotes). The Micah Mandate has published our article in their website, do check it out. There are a few things I would have amended, add or remove if given a chance of revision, but then again, one understands the limitation of putting thoughts on pen, you just cannot write your entire mental process on paper. Suffice to say, the article more than reasonably represent our stance on political economy and on how theology engage with it.

The preliminary foundation of our article is that, borrowing from the Rev. Jim Wallis, the national budget is a moral document. Coming to a full circle in the end, we conclude:

The Budget being an important moral document must reflect moral leaderships. This includes documenting our vision and program to be a respectable civilization.

Without moral vision and moral leadership, a civilization will fail to progress. Malaysia is facing serious social crisis. Corruption is taken for granted from top-down. Our judiciary has been made a mockery with inconsistent and unjust sentencing and recently was further marred by the controversial Lingam’s tape. Our democracy is in a mess with the coup in Perak as well as the luring of representatives to change party by various means. The old issues of restricted press freedom, outdated and unjust laws such as the Internal Security Act have not been resolved and we are facing new social and moral problems such as human trafficking, abuse of foreign domestic helpers which sometimes led to death as in the recent case of 36-years old Indonesian maid Mautik Hani and even the atrocious rape of the Penan women in Sarawak, some who are under-aged girls.

In reforming the moral climate of the country, the fundamental change must necessarily include a reform in our democracy. The Government must show its sincerity to open up more democratic space in order for a healthy competition of ideas and political ideologies to take place. For the first time in half a century, Malaysia now has an opportunity to develop a Schumpeterian democracy where a stronger alternative political voice is heard. Free press and freedom of independent expression must be legally guaranteed. The Opposition party must be given the space to compete with the Ruling party for the votes of the people in a free and fair election. A healthy democracy where political parties compete for the people’s vote will safeguard the people’s interest against unchecked and unchallenged power. Recent research from Oxford University also confirmed the intuitive assumption that allowing fair competition between political parties increases the country’s economic performance.

And by way of postscript, we propose that the gospel has only one dimension, the social dimension, because it is good news to the whole world. In that sense, we propose a theology which similarly, has a face towards the world; a social theology. I hope to develop further on this in the near future, but for now, we appreciate your comments and critics on our article.

P/S: The Micah Mandate website has decided to remove our footnotes for easy reading. Those who would like to have the version with footnote can leave a message in the comment box with your email; I will send it to you.