Malaysians Still Way Behind in Political Literacy

BANGI (Selangor, Malaysia) April 9 (Bernama) -- While the heat of the 13th General Election is being felt all over the country, there appears to be some confusion in people's minds on the democratic values and the election process itself. Abdul Ghapa Harun, a senior lecturer with National University of Malaysia's History, Politics and Strategic Studies School, said this is due to the lack of understanding on democracy and the prevailing poor political literacy across the country. Apart from this, there are unscrupulous parties trying to create confusion through provocations that could even lead to confrontations and disturbances. And it is all due to the political parties' thrill in winning over the voters at the expense of noble values and democracy itself. ENHANCE THE POLITICAL LITERACY Abdul Ghapa explained that establishing a legitimate self government trusted by the people through a free, clean and fair election process is part and parcel of a democratic system. Therefore, it is important to conduct a free and fair election. And every citizen eligible to vote should carry out his or her rights wisely. He stressed that, for Malaysia to emerge as a matured democratic nation, the people's political literacy levels have to be enhanced to ensure clean elections without conflicts. He added that, the failure of many nations to defend their democratic system is due to their poor understanding of democracy itself, the lack of a healthy political culture, a doubtful electoral process, and the people's low tolerance levels. All these weakness lead to sentiments and emotions shaping the political attitude of the people that is not in line with the principles of democracy. "These are the elements behind many of the newly independent nations' failure to mature democratically compared with their developed counterparts like the United States and Japan. "The workings of our democracy too have yet to reach the maturity of the developed counterparts. Our political process is still strongly tied with emotions and sentiments. Therefore, in increasing the people's political literacy, the understanding of the noble democratic values must be enhanced," Abdul Ghapa said. DON'T BE EASILY MANIPULATED This is something that Malaysians should take heed of because when the understanding of democracy and election is lacking, their political attitude can be easily manipulated through irresponsible rhetoric and provocations. This is what prompts people to react unjustly on others or on issues based on emotions and sentiments. "For a country with a plural society like us, it is important that all parties espouse educated and responsible political values, behaviour and awareness. "The people of poor political literacy levels have difficulty evaluating current issues, especially relating to race and religion, carefully and they have a propensity to react emotionally and not rationally," said Abdul Ghapa. In a matured democracy, the main point of contention in deciding on the party or candidate should be based on performance record and not on political emotions. "This is what meant by political literacy. What is important is that, they have to look into the party's and the candidate's record as they are the ones who will represent the people's voice and their aspirations," he said. TOGETHER WE CAN CREATE DEMOCRATIC MATURITY At present the community's political literacy is very much shaped by the daily living environment, apart from schools and higher education environments and through interactions. Abdul Ghapa explained that political literacy and noble values of democracy would not appear on its own. It could only happen through socialisation and continuous education. The responsibility to enhance political literacy and democratic values have to be shouldered by all stakeholders, he said. "Most importantly, leaders and political parties should play a role in educating the public and their supporters by inculcating political values that are in line with democracy. Without this realisation, the road to a matured democracy will lead nowhere," he said. After going through 12 general elections, all political parties by now should have greater awareness on their roles and responsibilities in the democratic system, the election process and the required values. Nevertheless, hitherto political parties in the country have been pre-occupied with indoctrinating their ideologies to the masses instead of inculcating democratic values, Abdul Ghapa added. The collective effort of many parties, especially the media and the government, is important in achieving political literacy and in rejuvenating the noble values. Abdul Ghapa added that, if political leaders and parties espoused a high level political literacy, people would also do the same. This is one of the prerequisites of creating a matured democratic system. "In this election, all participating political parties should offer practical agendas and programmes to the people and no longer manipulate their sentiments and emotions just to win votes," he said. -- BERNAMA