The Holy Grail for the National Front and UMNO politicians is to be elected – to the branch, division, supreme council, state Assembly, parliament; and if not, appointed to local councils, government bodies, sinecures in government-controlled institutions, the senate, political offices as dogsbodies of the politically rich and the powerful. For an election comes with status beyond his wildest dreams. That is the aim. To achieve it, one must be prepared to promise more than heaven on earth. It is not required that the promises be kept. Usually, they are not. Once the election is over, all is forgotten. Anyone who questions or challenges it will not get the time of day.

For the UMNO general Assembly next month, the going rate for a delegate is RM600 per vote and four days of hotels and expenses. As in years past, the delegate would make a profit of attending the general Assembly. The rate went up by RM100 when UMNO demanded that candidates cannot campaign, the delegates should know who they are, and vote accordingly.

If two nominations are received for an individual for a post, his name is on the ballot. The chairman of the meeting then cannot say the top two posts should not be contested. The UMNO general Assembly in its wisdom had put the hurdle of nominations from 30 per cent of the divisions for president, 15 per cent for deputy president, eight per cent for the vice presidents, two per cent for the supreme council. It did not mandate that the two top posts should be uncontested. The supreme council demand could even be ultra vires the UMNO constitution.

In the words of Pak Lah and Dato' Seri Najib, this does not have the force of law: when Tengku Razaleigh requested that the 30 per cent of nominations needed to stand for the UMNO presidency, the pair insisted the supreme council could not since it was the UMNO general Assembly that decided on it. If so, the supreme council order, if indeed it was passed, cannot stand since the UMNO general Assembly did not insist the two positions be returned unopposed.

The 2004 General Elections should have been no different. The BN would have won with its two-thirds and more majority. The Opposition would have held its ground, or even lose some of it. But the BN realised the old practices cannot work. The Pendang parliamentary and Anak Bukit state Assembly byelections in Kedah - it won one, lost the other - two years ago hinted at the dangers ahead: the BN could not depend on the Malay ground, disenchanted with it since Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim was sacked, jailed, humiliated and beaten to a pulp in defiance of Malay cultural rules, and that divide forced it to a new alignment with the Chinese and the bumiputras of Sarawak and Sabah. It was equally important for PAS to be sidelined. In Parliament, it showed up a BN front bench as the Malaysian Keystone Cops, bumbling and bungling its way from one relentless parliamentary question to another, unable to debate the issues, frightened when PAS leaders stand up to speak, unwilling to stand up, running away from the chamber when the issues got an uncomfortably close airing. So it enhanced the advantage it had with the new electoral boundaries with a little skullduggery of its own.

The BN and UMNO in Pahang woke up too late to find PAS well organised, and a threat. It is the home state of the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak. He faces a tough re-election campaign in his Pekan constituency, his opponent a retired well-regarded brigadier-general in his 70s. In 1999, he squeaked through with a 241 vote majority. It is touch-and-go, admits those around him, and made worse with two military camps with 4,000 voters, and a well-organised PAS electoral machine. PAS is fielding 30 candidates for the state Assembly, almost all of whom well-educated or professionals. UMNO is disastrously divided in the state, the mentri besar, Dato' Seri Adnan Yaakob, rides rough shod over the UMNO machine that he is resented, and a few state Assemblymen dropped have switched their allegience to PAS. The BN and UMNO woke up too late to find that they have to play second fiddle to PAS. What frightens is PAS's campaign is not to take the state now but to disorient UMNO further so that it would fall into its lap without effect in 2009.

If the Opposition does not make that effort, as the BN does not, it would give democratic institutions a bad name. Politics is as far removed from the average citizen these days because he does not partake in it. He is told to shut up when he has a point of view, and if he persists, threatened with dire consequencies. The BN has made politics important only for the vote. The voter is then told that since it is given it the mandate, it should accept whatever it prescribes for him. In Parliament and state Assembly, there is no debate. The state assemblies do not meet more than once or twice a year, so power is concentrated in the hands of the executive, who has carte blanche to do as he likes. The Opposition accepts it, for after the election, it retreats into its shell.

THE NATIONAL FRONT (BN) FINANCES are in a mess. It does not have funds on its own, only what its member parties allot for its running and when elections are around. In elections past, funds were aplenty. There was more than enough to manage elections, and the the odd inevitable pilfering of millions of ringgit. Now party leaders control the finances with no checks and balances, with the inevitable consequence of billions of ringgit that should be in the books are not. UMNO, for instance, has not presented its accounts for nearly two decades, sidestepping the issue at every general Assembly under a fiction that the UMNO supreme council would pass it. But even that body has not had a chance to scrutinise it. The accounts were never presented to it. It is the same in every BN party. The BN's belief it can do as it likes, the money would flow in like water, and victory would be seized from the jaws of defeat.

If Pak Lah is not careful or astute, he would have a stressful term in office. He started his leadership well, promising a caring society and addressing the social development that Dr Mahathir ignored in his rush to industrialise Malaysia by 2020, and changes to the system that would return Malaysia where possible to status quo ante Mahathir. He is not Dr Mahathir, and he would chart a different and softer course. But it would not be an easy ride. He is the first Prime Minister who is not a member of UMNO at its formation in 1946. He represents a major shift in Malaysian politics. He would have to fight his way since he does not have the natural support from at the creation. He is not yet annointed, and he would and is challenged at every turn. A slip between now and the UMNO general Assembly would be costly indeed.

But when BN decided to up the ante and hold election first for the Sabah state Assembly, in its misguided belief it could rout the Opposition, as its Tun Datu Mustapha bin Datu Harun could, and did, a quarter of a century ago with such strong arm tactics as tying an opponent under his house with a dog chain so he could not file his nomination papers. Those days are over. Today it is a federally-controlled and -directed Sabah UMNO that is in control, and its years in office denigrated every promise it made to Sabah when it took office. Instead, and much to the disgust of Sabahans, it became a loyal poodle of Kuala Lumpur's interests. One corporate figure describe the role of the Sabah UMNO chief minister as a branch manager to the head office, with little or no power to act independently.

THE UMNO SECRETARY-GENERAL, TAN Sri Khalil Yaakob, and the Sabah UMNO chief minister, Dato' Musa Aman, are in no doubt the opposition in the state would be annihilated in the coming state Assembly polls. "The BN will achieve a 100 per cent victory in the next Sabah state election," they crowed at a press conference in Sandakan on 04 September 2003. Both clearly did not agree with their over-optimistic assessment and quickly downgraded their confident expectations: Dato' Musa would then speak only of "overwhelming success" and Tan Sri Khalil of his confidence in an opposition rout. In other words, neither believed in what they said. It was an attempt to rouse the BN supporters in Sabah from their fissiparous turf-defining quarrels to implausibly rally around to rout the opposition. So, the spin continues.

If this comes about, Pak Lah would be reduced, as prime minister, as Dato' Seri Abu Hassan Omar was as foreign minister, as postman to Dr Mahathir. But could Dr Mahathir pull it off? He could so long as Pak Lah and UMNO would allow it. If they do, Dr Mahathir would have power without responsibility. He does not want to stop a witchhunt after he leaves. Early this week, Pak Lah led a BN and UMNO team to discuss the Sabah UMNO and BN candidates for the state Assembly election there. Dr Mahathir had wanted election there first before calling for it in the other states and parliament. But he was stopped in his tracks when PAS, which controls two states, Kelantan and Trengganu, said it would dissolve the state assemblies in the two states in tandem with Sabah.

THE PAHANG DARUL KASINO CONTROVERSY has sunk deep into the UMNO psyche. But hardly anyone even alluded to it in the controlled debate at the UMNO general Assembly. Speaker after speaker raised other issues and how it would have fared worse in the 1999 general elections if the new electoral list, with its more than 600,000 new voters, had been used. The Bukit Tinggi casino, run by the super crony, Tan Sri Vincent Tan, UMNO now accepts, is one election issue in the coming general elections, most likely in the first few months of 2004, which could cause it to lose perhaps 20 seats, and one state government. One prominent UMNO leader was harsher: UMNO and the National Front (BN) must divert attention from that, or face, in his words, 'disaster'. The second finance minister, Dato' Seri Jamaluddin Jarjis, was heard to tell to any who would listen he would react soon to the questions lobbed at him by PAS in Parliament. That might be too late.

THE UMNO GENERAL Assembly, WHICH ended its 57th annual meeting - never mind UMNO leaders thought it was its 54th - heralds more change than is realised. The outgoing president, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, is its last who was a member of UMNO on the day it was founded on 11 May 1946. The new president was only 7 then. For the first time one saw why UMNO leaders are so upset at the dominance of women in UMNO and lurched feebly into turning Malaysia into an Islamic state to stop them in their tracks. However smooth the political transition, the new Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, is not out of the woods. He cannot breathe easy. All contenders agreed to abide by his choice of his deputy, which he would in any case reveal only after he moves into the gilded chair.

THE LAST GENERAL ELECTIONS WAS in 1999. This is the fourth UMNO General Assembly since. In the past three, there was no serious look into why the Malays had deserted the UMNO in such large numbers. Yet, in the fourth, and with general elections looming, there is concern that if the new electoral list, which included mostly the first-time voters, had been used, UMNO and BN would have lost more seats than they did. This breast-beating now seems to be a subtle hint to those in power that perhaps guided democracy or some such concoction must be found if UMNO is to continue to dominate the Malaysian landscape. The problem is not the new Chinese and Indian new voters: it does not matter much if they vote with the BN or not; the pro-government Chinese and Indian candidates need Malay support to be returned in elections.

He was rejected for what would not have admitted many of UMNO's members in Sabah: that he changed so many parties in the past, and what guarantee is there he would not from UMNO? Some in Sabah UMNO felt his joining UMNO was to complement his brother, Dato' Joseph Pairin Kitingan's Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), which has rejoined the National Front (BN) in the state. They were frightened of the prospect of the two brothers creating problems for UMNO in the state, after the next state Assembly elections. In one sense, UMNO is right: he was viewed with suspicion in every party he was involved in: PBS, Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS), Party Akar, Party UPKO, back to PBS. It is possible I may have missed a party or two. But in each he was viewed with suspicion and egged on his way to the next.

LAST WEEK, THE UMNO MANAGEMENT committee decided the General Assembly in June should be in October to give its President and Malaysian Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, a fitting send off into retirement. The UMNO information chief, Tan Sri Megat Junid Ayob, announced it. On Sunday (16 Feb), the UMNO secretary-general, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob, said it would be discussed in the Supreme Council at its next meeting. On Monday, Dr Mahathir would not hear of it, said it be in June. Since the UMNO management committee is senior party officials chaired by the deputy president, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, on first glance it would reveal a deep split in UMNO between King and Dauphin. So it was believed. Dr Mahathir has bluntly told Pak Lah he still calls the shots. He should have been consulted of any change. And other fanciful versions suggest an ascerbic confrontation.

THE NATIONAL FRONT (BN) CAN DO SCANT LITTLE as UMNO, MCA and Gerakan trade insults and threats on a non-issue brought to the fore in an irrelevant show of force by the MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, and the BN deputy president, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The farce ended when the MCA presidential council, with the UMNO gun at its throat, suspended "indefinitely" -- or as Dr Ling put it, "indefinite means indefinite" -- the two MCA state Assemblymen who danced to his tune but were made scapegoats when UMNO objected. What makes it questionable is that all parties ignored the rules. That bad faith caused this crisis is not in doubt. The embattled MCA leaders in Kuala Lumpur staged this farce to divert attention. The BN deputy president ignored the rules and procedure to demand the two MCA state Assemblymen be dismissed. The BN whip did not order the state Assemblymen, as he must if it was of the importance he now says it is, to vote against the DAP motion. Without the whip, the state Assemblymen can vote as they please.

The National Front (BN) manufactured crisis turns curiouser and curiouser. It wants expelled the two Penang MCA state Assembly men, Mr Lim Boo Chang (Dato' Kramat) and Ms Tang Cheng Liang (Jawi), who caused panic in BN by abstaining, not vote with it, a DAP motion to delay the controversial Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR) until after a current road project is completed. Nothing in BN is at it seems. UMNO wants them expelled, the MCA wants to, and not want to, depending on who you talk to. It is now a right royal mess. Forgotten in this dispute-to-order is if they could be punished when the whip did not do its duty, that nine BN state Assemblymen, most of whom from UMNO, were in the state Assembly when the vote was taken. The duo did not vote with the DAP motion, but that in the finger-pointing that goes on in BN is enough grounds to be punished for treachery.

IT IS OFFICIAL. The Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, on his return from Paris, without finding out what happened or the latest developments, decreed the two MCA state Assemblymen who abstained on a vote in the Penang state Assembly last week had breached party discipline and can -- not should -- be disciplined. "It is a very serious thing," he said. What did he intend to do about it? "We will look into precedents and make a decision." Would disciplinary action be taken. "Possible." In other words, in the Prime Minister's view, his deputy and ordained successor, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, has shot from his hip yet again. More than that, the National Front (BN) and UMNO has lost its hold on its elected representatives. There is always a pre-Assembly meeting of BN representatives where party positions and stands are decided upon. From what we know so far even the state BN was shocked at Pak Lah's outburst. It is proof yet again of the dismantling of BN.

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