Jae Senn
This below is a good example of the “Urbanite Political Bubble”:
Some people think of all this as achievements, as steps towards progressive politics and a New Malaysia, etc., but they’re trapped within their own circle of self-reinforcing narratives and ideologies. When you do not step away from the crowd that thinks the same as you do and talk to the regular man-on-the-street, this is what happens.
Honestly, does he think the entire Malaysia give a damn about these developments? Cost of living, home ownership, and many other daily-life issues are the main focus of a majority of Malaysians and the PH government has to do better to address these basic bread-and-butter issues.
Are the die-hard “intellectuals” so far removed from the larger reality of this country that they feel these are triumphs of the past one year?
This “Urbanite Political Bubble” has another unfortunate consequence. The “progressive urbanites” who always feel that they’re more intelligent, well-informed and progressive than the rest of the country often prescribe “solutions” for the country based on what’s good for them, or they feel that they have more right to decide which direction the country and society should go.
Hence, you see situations such as these progressive urbanites shoving LGBT normalization down the throats of traditionalists and conservatives. You see them pushing for Malaysia to be a republic and various amendments of the Federal Constitution which they insist is better for the country, without taking into consideration the historical and societal significance of these institutions. They will then label those that do not agree with them to be backwards,
Back to this tweet.
Do we consider these to be significant milestones of the new political order? I would dare say that for most of the people, no. Not when a majority of this country still has problems making ends meet, not when fresh graduates still have problems finding employment and repaying their study loans, and not when young families still have problems owning their first home.
