The Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia [Gerakan], the Malaysian Indian Congress [MIC], the People's Progressive Party [PPP] are not political parties now in the sense that UMNO or PAS is one. They cannot exist on their own, like many opposition political parties. They divisions in them are based on hate, and suffer the same problems as the opposition parties, and would disappear from the scene if they ever leave the National Front. The Gerakan provides the chief minister in Penang, but the MCA is yapping at its heels, to make the chief minister very uncomfortable. The DAP's attempt to throw out the Gerakan and take over failed because it was not meant to govern. The people of Penang wanted DAP not as the government but as the opposition. The DAP is forever destined to be in the opposition because that is how it is perceived.

The aim is to make sure Pak Lah's team is in charge after 2007. The individual cabinet portfolios do not matter. What the loser in the Gerakan leadership told repoters after he was dropped, that he would have to find a new job, says it all. The country runs on auto-pilot, despite the cabinet. It has run that day for decades. It can continue till 2007. But the ground is restive. They do not see that the country must be sacrificed for UMNO leadership gains. The ministers are unhappy that the Press, which echos occasionally these concerns of the people, are more likely to be less deferential. The alternative press and Internet have proved a more reliably bell-wealther of what happens in the country. This is seen by the official attacks on them but they will not go away. The cabinet resuffle to strengthen Pak Lah's position in the UMNO leaderships stake is going to be scruntised, and those in power must now explain what they need not in the past.

This is an issue that will not go away. The Federal Constitution is raped so that Malaysia is an Islamic state. Although Trengganu courts have said the Trengganu state assembly could not give to an organisation to issue fatwas, in the Federal government it is allowed. Otherwise, how could a government department – which the Islamic religious department is – create a crisis, and showed its power by saying it would not form a snoop squad because Pak Lah objects to it. In other words, this department will not follow government rules and will follow what the prime minister has to say, not the other way around. Now in Tampin, an issue has cropped up which would alienate the Chinese and the Buddhists. A Malay woman, who married a Chinese Buddhist in 1936 and has practiced as one since, has died at 89; she was disallowed to leave the Muslim religion about 15 years ago. The Negri Sembilan religious affairs department want to bury her as a Muslim. She has not been a Muslim for 60 years. Pak Lah, the MCA and the Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia should make a stand. So must Mr Khairy Jamaluddin, Pak Lah's son-in-law, who is from the state (Negri Sembilan), and hopes to be prime minister of Malaysia soon. He is now engaged in making sure the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, would not.

It is not often realised that about 25 per cent of the opposition in Parliament, and significant in some of the state assemblies, were left wing parties, At the time, the government did not want left wing parties to survive, branding them as 'pro-communist'. There were usually Chinese-based political parties, although Malay parties also existed. It was the era of the Socialist Front – a front formed when the Malay-based Party Rakyat Malaysia joined hands with the Chinese-based Labour Party. The government accused most of its leaders as being communist, and when the riots took place in May 1969, the Labour Party was a shadow of its old self, its leaders joined other parties, notably the Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, which split into two when it decided to form the government in Penang after it captured the state. The PRSM has now joined Keadilan – which resulted in a split into PRM and Parti Socialis Malaysi to form Parti Keadilan Rakyat – and its vice president, Dr Husin Ali, spent years under detention under the Internal Security Act for his political views. But had it not been for the Labour Front, the George Town City Council would not be the cash cow that the National Front now pillages in secret.

The May 1969 racial riots is a good starting point. That was, contrary to the spin, an UMNO coup to remain in power for all time. The New Economic Policy and Malay Dominance followed. It could not stomach the fact that in Selangor and Perak, it had the same seats in the state assembly as the oppposition. In Penang, an opposition coalition led by Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia has captured the state. Parliament was suspended after the riots, and the NOC, of which the secretary was the present prime minister, ruled. and PAS had ruled Kelantan since 1959.. Before Parliament was restored, the NEP and Malay Dominance was in place. The National Front was formed, its early members included PAS and Gerakan, and replaced the Alliance that brought the country indepedence in 1957.

THE ELECTION IN PENGALEN Pasir was important for UMNO that it had its leaders virtually staying in the constituency for the campaigning. The deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, for instance, was there virtually every day of the runup to the polls. The first reason is easily discernible: he did not want the Prime Minister's son-law and UMNO Youth deputy leader, Mr Khairy Jamaluddin, steal a march over him in the Prime Ministerial stakes. The other reason, unmentioned, is that the voters took askance to the presence of the MCA President, Dato' Ong Kah Ting, the Gerakan President, Dato' Seri Lim Kheng Yaik, the MIC President, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, even the former MCA President, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik. During the campaign, the newspapers which supported each of them were talking of how they brought in the Chinese and Indian votes in the constituency. But the reality is that the non-Malay communities did not want them. But the National Front is a multiracial coalition, and it would be disastrous if the non-Malay constituencies did not not support them. Dato' Seri Najib was also in constituency to make sure of the non-Malay vote. This is not how it was portrayed. The Star, for instance, reported how the Chinese came out to vote because of the efforts of the MCA past and present MCA presidents. The Chinese and Indian voters in Pengkalen Pasir believed the UMNO deputy president more they believed their own leaders.

I keep talking of UMNO and the National Front. That is because the non-Malay parties in the National Front have exchanged office for decades by reneging on why they are in National Front in the first place. The MIC president, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, is the second longest in cabinet, having been in it since 1979, but he is now blaming in public the government in which he is a member of not doing enough for the Indian community. He is trying to win back the support of the Indian community, not all of whom are MIC members, because they are other claimants, and they are not necessarily other political parties. He tries to order the succession so that his man will succeed him in Cabinet. This is so in MIC and Gerakan. The Chinese and Indian people do not trust their political parties any more, as MCA, Gerakan and MIC looks after their members and very few else. UMNO will soon be in that position. The Malay on reaching maturity goes to UMNO if he wants to make lots of money and to PAS if he wants a career in politics. If this goes on for a few years, UMNO will be in trouble. An UMNO member high up in the party told me that by 2015, the party would be in the opposition. If UMNO is in trouble, the other political parties in the National Front would follow.

The government agencies are closed to the Chinese and Indian, so both have written off the civil service. The government is composed of UMNO, MCA, MIC, Gerakan and the other parties of the Barisan Nasional. But the leaders of these parties have remained in the cabinet for ecades, and reluctant to talk of their compatriots in government-run establishments. UMNO had taken this one step further. The prime minister, Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, has stated that those in the government are not required to resign if they lost the party election, as many in MCA and MCA have, and MIC is due to have its elections soon. In the Gerakan elections for the party president, the loser is therefore allowed to remain in the government. Unless he chooses to resign. But resign he would not, if others are an indication. The former health minister, Mr Chua Jui Meng, resigned from the cabinet when he lost the MCA elections.

But Dr Lim overplayed his hand. There was a public spat, in which the UMNO and MCA presidents exchanged daily barbs. The Tengku was helped in no small measure in this crisis by one of Dr Lim's aides, now an important figure in Singapore. In the end, Dr Lim was forced to quit as MCA president, went on to form the United Democratic Party, had a small representation in Parliament and state assemblies, until in 1968, he threw in his lot when the Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia was formed, which at the head of an opposition coalition, captured Penang in the 1969 general elections. The Gerakan-led opposition formed the state government with him as chief minister, but two years later broke ranks to join the newly formed BN.

Dato' Seri Samy wants to all MIC elected representatives moulded in his image and cravenly beholden to him. It is not peculiar to him. Every BN party leader looks upon his role as a dictator riding rough shod over a slaven crew of sycophants; all others are sidelined and damned. Besides, almost every BN party president has a deputy he does not want but can do little about it. The Gerakan president, Dato' Seri Lim Kheng Yaik, had announced his retirement but withdrew it at the thought of his deputy succeeding him. Pak Lah has a deputy he cannot stand, and would not be displeased if the general election on March 21 swallows him. The MCA went into crisis in the last days of its former president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, over his differences with his deputy. Leaders in office for too long or too powerful believe they are omnipotent, ignoring that often their feet are clay. Malaysian politics, with rare exception, is "palace politics" - the skull duggery and scheming to be close to the overall leader. This is doubly so in UMNO, whose president is so overwhelmingly powerful that BN leaders sycophantically behave before him.

The main Chinese parties in BN - the MCA and the Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia - have announced plans to merge, to present a united face to the Malaysian electorate. No one believes it can work. The MCA wants it so it can recapture the Penang state chief ministership it lost to the Gerakan in 1969. The MCA realises that for all its influence in the centre and in the state, it does not have the gravitas of the Gerakan, which controls the Penang state government. With Pak Lah believing its president, Dato' Seri Lim Kheng Yaik, has overstayed - and Dato' Seri Lim, is not prepared to step down just yet for like in UMNO, MCA, MIC, the Gerakan president does not want his deputy to succeed him. Pak Lah would have none of that. They have overstayed, and it is time they left. This promise of joint MCA-Gerakan functions fractured from the start: a half-hearted attempt in Penang notwithstanding, the MCA and Gerakan held their Chinese New Year open houses at their respective headquarters and about the same time so that leaders from one could not possible be at the other. UMNO's fear of a strong Chinese party is real: the more so when the two leaders are not accepted in the Pak Lah camp. Is this why, I wonder, Dr Lim frequently points to Tun Mahathir's picture in his office, and refers him as "my boss"?

TWO NATIONAL FRONT (BN) POLITICAL PARTIES, the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and the Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (Gerakan), are as different as chalk and cheese. One is a Chinese racial party, the other nominally multiracial but in no doubt of its Chinese base. For three-and-a-half decades, since the Gerakan-led coalition defeated the MCA-led Alliance government in Penang in 1969, each tried its best to force the other off its political perch. The MCA attempted a coup d'etat after the 1999 General Election when it weaned two Gerakan state assemblymen in Penang to defect to force its claim to have an MCA chief minister. UMNO would not agree. The bad blood is so severe that the Gerakan eminence grise, Tun Lim Chong Eu, once an elected MCA president, is not listed as one in the MCA headquarters. Then last month without warning the MCA and Gerakan talked of a merger as a first step to unite all Chinese political parties under one banner. The past is forgotten, a new Chinese dawn is all that matters, and what better way to start, say the MCA and Gerakan presidents, Dato' Seri Ong Ka Ting and Dato' Seri Lim Kheng Yaik.

From UMNO to the MCA-Gerakan merger. The Gerakan president, Dato' Seri Lim Kheng Yaik, is afraid that the merger would be aborted if it is discussed as it should in public. The merger talks "is no honeymoon" but a "long, long" journey. He accuses the press forf putting "stones and boulders" in its path. He blames the press for asking "inquisitive" questions about it. How could they? Don't they know that is a matter of utmost national importance that must be discussed in total secrecy? What are the contentious issues? Dr Lim mentions a few: the status of non-Chinese members in Gerakan, since he is the more senior whether he or Dato' Seri Ong should be the first president of the new party, and its name.

At the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) head office, there are photographs of its past presidents. Is it a historical record? No. Three names are missing. Two had been since the 1960s: Tun Lim Chong Eu, when he resigned as president in 1959, after 16 months, when the UMNO president, Tengku Abdul Rahman al-Haj, rejected his demand for more state and parliamentary constituencies to contest in the general elections of that year. Dato' Cheah Toon Lock, the Kedah MCA chief, was appointed acting president and held office until Tun Tan Siew Sin succeeded him. The other name missing is of Dato' Seri Neo Yee Pan, president between 1983-85. It cannot be an accident. It is a deliberate act to remove from its past those whom the present has no time for. Tun Lim's crime is that he joined two political parties in opposition to the MCA after he left, the United Democratic Party (UDP) and the Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, where he found his niche.

Twenty thousand turned up for the feast. Rain fell after it began. Newspapers proudly proclaimed how they stayed on to honour Pak Lah in the heavy downpour. Did they have a choice? Where could they run for shelter from the uncovered shelter? To the open air outside? The MCA and its captive press laid themselve bare to reveal its sycophancy to Pak Lah. The multiracial parties like the Gerakan found it politic in this new world to fashion itself a Chinese political party. When Pak Lah, in his speech, called on the Chinese parties to unite it was music to their ears. Multiracial politics is thrown overboard. All that matters is the forthcoming elections. The non-Chinese members in the Gerakan is a needless irrelevance and can be jettisoned at will. Pak Lah thinks it a good idea. The spin doctors in the press suddenly realise that unity is strength. The BN should be united. All help must be given for that.

MAIKA HOLDINGS BERHAD BEGAN life as an investment company of the Malaysian Indian Congress, to harness Indian capital for the common good. Hundreds of thousands of working-class Indians borrowed money to the hilt to buy shares and soon, like investment companies run by UMNO, MCA, Gerakan and other political parties in the National Front (BN) went bankrupt or firmly on the road to it. The Maika Holdings Berhad mismanaged - and politically interfered by the MIC president, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu - from the start, saw the value of its RM1 shares reduced to about ten sen. It was re-organised, the original shareholders lost their money, many went into bankruptcy, and the new Maika Holdings Berhad went into areas it knew nothing about, and quickly ran into debt. When shareholders asked about how the company is doing, they were either shouted down or warned.

He made one fundamental mistake. He did not know when to retire. But then BN leaders do not know when to. The former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, would not until the last moment let go. The former MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, would not until he was forced to. As would the MIC president. And, let us not forget, the Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia president, Dato' Seri Lim Kheng Yaik. Sarawak could well plunge into a crisis if the chief minister, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, would not step down after two decades in office. So would Negri Sembilan, whose mentri besar, Tan Sri Isa Samad, has been in office for 22 years. Trengganu was lost to PAS when the UMNO mentri besar, Tan Sri Wan Mokhtar Wah Ahmad, insisted 24 years in office was not enough and he wanted another term. That decision would now be made for him. What would he do then? Retire to Perth with his ill-gotten gains, or stay back and face the music as the former Georgian president, Mr Eduoard Sheverdnadze, when he declined political asylum in Germany? Whatever he does, he is history.

But this is enough for the MIC to manufacture a crisis. Why is Dato' Subramaniam silent? Or as the New Straits Times' puts it yesterday (28 October 2003), "Subra's silence fuels speculation". The MIC vice presidents told Dato' Pandithan to "mind his own business", which in a sense he was. After all, his aim is to see the IPF in MIC, and he does what anyone in his position would do and create confusion in MIC ranks. But just in case the MIC vice presidents' comments could be read wrongly by the MIC God, they add with more passion than anyone thought they had to reaffirm the great and glorious leadership of a leader past his prime. The MIC vice presidents are more frightened they would be forced off their perch if the party is turned around into an efficient representative of the Indian community. We see this trend in every BN party - UMNO, MCA, MIC, Gerakan, PPP, Sabah and Sarawak UMNO - when partly leaders opt for the status quo however untenable. The PPP demand is seen in MIC as a call to revolution to overthrow its leaders.

What about the minister for justice, Dato' Rais Yatim? He was deputy president of Semangat '46 before he was persuaded to rejoin UMNO? What about the Gerakan president, Dato' Seri Lim Kheng Yaik, who was once a stalwart of the MCA? Or Tun Lim Chong Eu whose party hopping during a long political career can rarely be matched by a Malaysian. He was president of three political parties, the MCA one of them, before he became president of the Gerakan. With such good company as precedent, would not Tan Sri Rashid agree that being a politician of low morals is something to attain for? Every UMNO leader in the Sabah state assembly and in the state cabinet and indeed almost every other politician from any party there must be of low political morals indeed: for everyone of them hopped parties at one time or another and, in Tan Sri Rashid's eyes, damned.

With general elections widely expected in the first half of 2004, it puts both Pak Lah and Dato' Seri Ong in a bind. It is not just the MCA's internal problems, but its relations with the other Chinese party in the BN, Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, especially in Penang. It now appears the triads plays a huge part there to queer the pitch, with Gerakan leaders suggesting that it was the triads that caused it: pressure was attempted on them through the triad leaders, but that did not work.

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