two-party system by datuk zaid ibrahim

with reference to my post yesterday, ‘two-party system – possible?’ apart from the link of anil netto i pointed out in that post, there is also a write up in malaysiakini on the forum.  at the moment now, though, i’m going to give you the transcript of datuk zaid’s speech. here you get to read only the first 2 paragraphs. please click on the link below for the full speech. do read it all in length.  interesting points made by datuk zaid.

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Two-party system
by Datuk Zaid Ibrahim
(during the sembang-sembang forum)

A two-party system is one where two major parties or two major grouping of political parties dominate the voting in an election, at all levels. The obvious examples are Labour vs. Conservatives in Britain; the Moderate Justice party with Islamic roots vs. the secular westernised grouping in Turkey; and the Republicans vs. the Democrats in America. The two-party system is the outcome of an evolutionary process where the main political players gravitate towards a common political philosophy. Ultimately, we discern in most countries the creation of two separate groups that are philosophically distinguishable. So one can say that Labour is more oriented to the centre left with strong union and workers affiliation whereas the Conservatives are more right wing and more averse to Big Government. Most importantly, both parties represent the interest of all segments of society.

Malaysia has never been short of having an Opposition. But some parties in the Opposition got offers that were too good to refuse and joined the Barisan Nasional and one point or the other in our short history. These are political parties from Sabah and Sarawak. We have also an Islamic Opposition Party in the shape of PAS and a secular Opposition Party in the shape of DAP but only Malays would support PAS, and mainly non-Malays would support DAP. So Opposition parties thus far continue to be segmented, are not broad-based, and have narrow communal appeal. This helps to justify the authoritarianism of UMNO, in the name of ensuring that an acceptable coalition to all communities remains in power. That’s why the BN has ruled for 52 years.

But it is time for a change.

full transcript of datuk zaid’s speech.