Third Party Interest

In a democracy, what is a third party interest? Recently, there has been some commotion over the seating of the so-called ‘third force\’ in Parliament.

Frankly, these may be sincere people who hold a third way of thinking and being, or they are simply discards of another established way of thinking? In war, they are either called renegades or mercenaries.

Neither are these parliamentarians like Hindraf who were obviously a third force! For the record, they were the first civil society group that marched into Putrajaya with almost 1000 people.

The second force was the Bar Council under President Ambiga and now, the Orang Asal who have claimed their rightful place in Putrajaya, the capital of Malaysia.

How then does my elected parliamentarian represent my common interest in Parliament? Often he has to tow the party line. What is this party line? In a mature democracy like New Zealand or Canada, the party line belongs to either the party in power, or the party in opposition.

All others, representing yet other party interests, are also parties but with little or no ‘force\’ behind them. The government party is the one with the largest number of elected members in Parliament and the opposition, the second largest group or coalition.

In the Westminster model, any elected member of either group can ask for a vote of confidence and establish his o her credentials to be the leader and the party in power. They need not be a formal leader of a formal coalition.

Therefore, I was amused at the ignorance of parliamentarians who suggested that Anwar Ibrahim should no longer be the leader of the opposition in Parliament. Only the opposition can decide who is their leader, not the rest of us.

Who is the ‘third force\’?

Therefore, who then represents the third party interest? In law, defining a two-party relationship often called a contract, the third party interest is ‘unstated and unspecified interests\’ of all those not involved as first and second parties.

Therefore, when I take third party insurance for my 25 year-old car, I am covering my risks against all drivers and other damages, other than my own car and related damages.

In a representative democracy, the third party interest is therefore all interests of the unorganised non-majority whom neither hold the government perspective of governance nor the opposition perspective of governance.

For example, all those who are 21 years and above today but who do not belong to any party or existing political persuasion of either side are actually a disorganised third party.

This is also true of the members of any large group of followers of any religion or a particular worldview but who do not take a direct interest in one side or the other of political governance.

Most of these youngsters, the ‘millennium generation\’ born after 1983 are not even registered to vote.

The only way they can be registered is by visiting a post office, an Elections Commissions (EC) office or another legitimately registered and authorised ‘registrar\’.

Assistant registrars are only political party-appointed persons and I fail to understand why. After all, the right to vote is a fundamental right.

Recently, a team of young people and their leaders who call themselves Growing Emerging Leaders or GEL met up with me to ask for help to get their group registered with the EC because they seek to register 2 million voters before the end of the year.

Now, is that not a noble vision? Is that not a useful and whole younger person activity? Is that not credible effort and something all Malaysians should support as in the public interest?

I have promised them that I would assist them in meeting up with relevant EC people to seek the proper procedures in becoming registrars and doing what I can to help them achieve their goal.

May God give all concerned with good governance in Malaysia the grace to accept this noble vision as something good for 2020 and beyond.