[COLUMNIST] The indecency of transparency

I’m just going to take the two most significant incidences that happened last year that would stay with us a long time. First, the Malaysian 15th general elections and second, the Batang Kali landslide tragedy.

Malaysia has once again survived another election. How the world loves to see an eruption of democracy. Knowing the inevitable emergence of the ballot boxes – come hell or high water (this time the elections were done during the rainy season and the floods), the government and opposition alike are rarely off their platforms in this country. So, when the date was announced, and dissolution of parliament happened, the entire national machinery and mindset shifts into election gear without unnecessary ruckus.

General election campaigns have been disastrously long or chafing brief, but the people don’t wait for an election campaign to make their decisions; they mull them all the time. The campaign period is merely a run-up to the day they declare those preferences for the next five-year terms of government. To the rakyat, this election was not about reform. It was about who can relieve their economic hardships, especially after the pandemic.

After casting our votes, I left with my family for a much need break. I was in a foreign land while waiting for the political drama to unravel in MY. I left the country when there was no government, and I hoped to come home to a good one, I lamented to my Bali guide, Komang Sudiawan. I told him that this was the longest wait for a premier to take office. When I was still a broadcast journalist some time ago, the results were on the same day, except for the 14th GE, where the power struggle and denial gave the results in the wee hours of the morning.

Komang answered, “Semoga keputusan yang terbaik dicapai, Bu Lina”. I was skeptical, I still am. He told me that Indonesia would be gearing up for their pemilu soon and they were troubled that Pak Jokowi will be ending his term. Joko Widodo, the 7th, and current president of Indonesia is an Indonesian politician and businessman who was elected in July 2014. He was the first Indonesian president from lower class family and not from an elite political or military background.

Bali has gone through many transformations under Pak Jokowi since I was here five years ago. He has managed to get rid of the middlemen, to put it roughly, so the local enterprises can prosper. There are streets dedicated to local food in Legian and Kuta, like the Dewi Sri Foodcourt. Here you will also find local shops like Bali Banana with their famous banana bread and Legit Durian that makes and sells durian layer cake, made from Monthong durian.

The 17th G20 Summit that was hosted in Nusa Dua, Bali in November 2022 also saw a dedicated space for local products from local clothes like Uluwatu, batik, food, liquor and even coffee. This was to further push local products to the heads of state from 19 countries and the European Union (EU). What better way of introduction to the 6,500 delegates who participated in the summit.

Even a stop at Gramedia, the biggest bookstore in Bali, showed a vast difference from what we have in our country. Gramedia houses mostly Indonesian and imported books translated to the Indonesian language. An impressive collection indeed. Translation is a big business here. I wish I could say the same about Malaysia. Here it’s a business of who you know, rather that subject expertise. Very pitiful.

Maybe this would be a good start for change in our country. Focus on the people and help them recover from the pandemic, that is unfortunately still around. Help them build their business so they can continue life, as we know it. And give our historians a chance to go further to reinterpret colonial history critically while inspiring young university students and lecturers, as many of our ‘main texts’ are still looking west.

Before 2022 was over, we were struck with yet another tragedy. On the morning of 16 December there was a terrible landslide at the Father’s Organic Farm in Batang Kali. This is said to be the second worst disaster in terms of fatalities, after the Highland Towers condominium collapse in 1993, which claimed 48 lives. The fact that the operator only had a license for the organic farm, and not to host camping activities, made it more difficult to accept.

The relevant question to ask here is how was it that the local and state authorities allowed such a steep hillslope to be cut in the first place and whether adequate geological testing, piling, and reinforcement of the slope had been adhered to when the road was constructed. Who was responsible for this disaster? The simple answer: someone’s culpability. When a tragedy feels like a crime, someone or something must take the blame. A culprit has to be found. Hence, the gravity of the inquiry; the somber pledge that the investigations will be forthright and courageous in establishing the causes of the catastrophe.

The incident, displacing 450,000 m3 (16 million cu ft) of soil and burying the campsites at the organic farm trapped 92 people under the collapsed slope; most were campers from the farm. The slope reached the limit of its endurance, it gave way, taking 31 victims with it. Eighteen of those killed were adults and 13 were children, with 20 bodies recovered from sector A, one from sector B and 10 from sector C. This was not a crime. Nobody deliberately willed this to happen. It was in other words, an accident, not due to sabotage, but due to neglect.

We also need to be honest about what didn’t happen. The maintenance that did not take place, the warning signs that were not heeded and the common sense that was disregarded. However, this does mean that there is no ‘culpability’ to be assigned. As the investigations closes, it might profit the commission and all Malaysians - to ponder the criminality of neglect.

Our hearts sank when we read quotations from the news about “two children 'sleeping' between the mother and father inside the camp” from fireman Abdul Rahman Lele. Nothing could prepare anyone for the sight of corpses at disaster sites, not even for experienced responders. We hope and pray that these incidents don’t happen again, and may we be more vigilant, as the rains are predictable, same time every year.

Predictability is important to understand. It is also diplomatically known as ‘political stability’ –what foreign businessmen like to see in countries where they put their money. How safe is the country - covers questions of government policy, political stability or instability, corruption, foreign trade policy, tax policy, labor law, environmental law, and trade restrictions. And how that stability is achieved is not their problem. It’s ours.

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Dr Lina Latif is an Associate Professor of the School of Media and Communication, Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus.