Malaysia does not have friends amongst Muslim bodies in North America. So, what is the ISCNA? It is an organisation of Muslim organisations led by the Syaikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani. On its international advisory board sits, amongst others, Hanim Hussein, and Raja Ashman Shah. The former is the daughter of the late prime minister, Tun Hussein Onn, sister of the UMNO youth leader, Dato' Hishamuddin Hussein and cousin of the defence minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak. The latter is the son of the Sultan of Perak.

It is this narrow view that the only Indians qualified to be in politics must be Tamils from what was once known as the Madras Presidency, and who challenge the MIC president -- other National Front component party leaders think likewise, beginning with the Prime Minister himself in UMNO -- should be forced out. But when death removes them, they can safely be given the highest honours. So, a road is named for Dato' Pathmanaban, possibly the most principled of MIC leaders in the past thirty years. So highly does Dato' Seri Samy view it that he would be treated better than Malaysia's third Prime Minister, Tun Hussein Onn, without a road named after him a decade after his death. Neither Tun Hussein nor Dato' Pathmanaban need political intervention to be remembered: but how they are treated, one by playing to the gallery and the other by totally ignoring his memory is proof of their greatness.

When Tun Razak died, his detractors in UMNO accused his immediate coterie of communist links, and both the Abdullahs were detained under the Internal Security Act for six years. Tan Sri Zain was posted immediately as Malaysian ambassador to the United States, a favour done him by Tun Razak's brother-in-law and successor, Tun Hussein Onn.

Within UMNO itself, after Tun Abdul Razak's unexpected death in January 1976, there was no clear cut successor. Tun Razak had, as Tan Sri Abdullah, points out in his New Straits Times column "On The Record" (NST, 26 September 00, p12), identified a brood of politicians who could take over from him. Amongst them were Dr Mahathir, Tengku Razaleigh, Dato' Musa Hitam, Tun Ghafar Baba. Indeed, if Tengku Razaleigh had joined the cabinet, instead of continuing to head Petronas and Bank Bumiputra Malaysia Berhad, after the 1974 general elections, he would have been deputy prime minister under Tun Hussein. But he miscalculated. He was not an outsider. The outsider was Tan Sri Ghazali Shafie, the then home minister. When Tun Hussein wanted him as deputy prime minister, the three UMNO vice presidents -- Ghafar Baba, Tengku Razaleigh, Dr Mahathir -- in a demarche said none would serve if one of them was not appointed deputy prime minister. Only the three said they would not serve, not as Tan Sri Abdullah insists the UMNO Supreme Council. Ghafar was not considered, Tengku Razaleigh was not in the cabinet, leaving only Dr Mahathir, who was. This was done in anti-Hussein surroundings, in the fallout from the Selangor mentri besar, Dato' Harun Idris's arrest for corruption, with his backers accusing close aides of Tun Razak as being pro-communist. This led to Tan Sri Abdullah's detention under the Internal Security Act for five years. But that is another story.
Tan Sri Abdullah is right when he suggests Tan Sri Lee and the MCA president preferred Tengku Razaleigh to Dato Seri Mahathir Mohamed as UMNO deputy president and therefore deputy prime minister after Dato (later Tun) Hussein Onn became Prime Minister in 1976 after Tun Abdul Razak Hussein died in London. He was close to Tengku Razaleigh, and he paid the price by being forced to resign. There was no question that UMNO stabbed him in the back. He miscalculated in his support for who should be UMNO president and paid dearly. He had to go. The MCA leaders themselves decided it could not have as president one who backed the Prime Minister's rival. That they did underlines not that the MCA has Chinese support but when the crunch comes, they had no choice but to kill their leader for putting lucrative contracts at risk. The non-Malay parties in the National Front survive, especially after the 1969 riots, by destroying their own standing with their communities if their leader's links with the UMNO president suffers. The MCA leaders' ability to shoot themselves in the foot when everything works in their favour is uncanny. It also makes Tan Sri Lee's claim the MCA had Chinese support even more questionable. When Dr Mahathir became Prime Minister in 1981, Tan Sri Lee's political career had come to an end, especially when Tengku Razaleigh prepared to challenge Dr Mahathir for the UMNO presidency after Dato' (now Tan Sri) Musa Hitam was appointed deputy prime minister. The MCA realised that with Tan Sri Lee as their leader, it would suffer at the hands of a vindictive Prime Minister. So, he had to go. That paradoxically proved how misguided Tan Sri Lee was at his victory in Seremban in the 1982 general elections.

Tun Razak had a worldview of Malay dominance, which the Prime Minister has but which neither the Tengku or Tun Hussein had. And he was adept at setting one off against the other, to have what he wanted on a plate. The expelled Dr Mahathir, after the May racial riots of 1969, was brought back into UMNO and moved up swiftly that he was deputy prime minister two years after re-entering Parliament in 1974. (He was first elected in 1964, but lost in 1969 to Yusof Rawa, who rose to be PAS prsident and died recently.) Tun Razak's sudden death in 1976 brought Dato' Hussein Onn, later Tun, as Prime Minister, but he was no more than a caretaker, and the Prime Minister succeeded him on his restirement in 1981. The impatient Prime Minister re-emphasised the NEP, reversing a practice of having a large group of Malay entrepreneurs of some would make it to billionaire status to an officially-encouraged plan to make a few billionaires, who he thought would, on their own, allow the benefits to trickle down to the other Malays. That did not work, and official policy now includes a massive effort to rescue these instant billionaires, with the wealth diverted to them ensuring not a fair distribution, but of massive debts. The split in UMNO emerged, with the old party loyalists like Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and the two former living former prime minister, alas no more, also removed the ingrained Malay cultural respect for the political party which brought it the country's independence. The Malaysian economy is beholden to the resolution of this debt crisis, rarely talked about amidst the rosy picture of the economy we are given. The humiliation of the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, brought UMNO on to the firing line, one that continues and must be resolved before there can be any improvement.

The New Straits Times today has a potted history of the English College (or Maktab Sultan Abu Bakar) which does not do justice either to its history or its role in the growth of education in Johore, and Malaysia. It began, as the piece notes, in 1914. At that time, only government servants could send their children to government schools, and the intake until the mid-1920s were Malays. The reorganisation in 1928 after Mr H.R. Cheesman was appointed inspector of schools opened its doors for the first time to children of those not in government service. This accounts for why many prominent Collegians -- Tun Hussein Onn, Tan Sri Philip Kuok, his brother, Robert -- began their early education at the Johore Bahru Convent. The English College was part of the Macaulayian desire for schools to train clerks to be subordinates to the British administration. It was in that connexion that these changes surfaced.

UMNO elections in the past ensured the return of leaders the party leader wants. But things can go awry. Tan Sri Syed Jaffar Albar, father of the foreign minister, was elected UMNO Youth leader when the UMNO President was a younger man, the prime minister, Dato' (later Tun) Hussein Onn. Indeed, in 1956, the man Tengku Abdul Rahman wanted as his deputy prime minister in independent Malaya the following year -- Dato' (later Tun) Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, who later became one in his own right -- lost to the machine candidate, Dato' (later Tun) Abdul Razak Hussein. When the ground is dissatisfied and angry, the electors chose someone they want; when it is not, the leaders can have their way. UMNO is in flux. The Anwar affair touched a raw nerve that continues to hurt. The UMNO Leader, yes, the He Who Thinks He Is Lord Of All He Surveys, bunkers down to defect rising criticism of his continuing as Prime Minister. He is caught up with the global hype of the Millennium, and wants to leave history not with what he believes are his Good Works for the nation, but that he was Prime Minister when the Millennium Clock struck midnight. This would also, he believes, give him time to ensure a succession that would be more solicitious to his, and his family's, welfare.

The most refreshing figure to come into Malaysian politics in recent years was Dato' Hishamuddin Onn, the deputy minister and UMNO deputy youth leader. Much was expected of him, as the son, grandson and great-grandson of distinguished Malaysians, but something seemed to have make him miss his calling. In recent months, he has quickly fallen into line from a politician of whom much was expected of to a "line politician" in UMNO, whose every move can be predicted. I was one of those who felt he had a political future carved out for him: his filial antecedents are a byword in Johore history; his great grandfather was Dato' Jaffar, Prime Minister under Sultan Abu Bakar (the great-grandfather of the present ruler); his grandfather, Dato' Sir Onn Jaffar, founded UMNO and died a political rebel's death still searching for the formula of united Malaysia; his father, Tun Hussein Onn, the prime minister before Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed.

Pak Lah (1364)   United States (636)   Straits Times (412)   Samy Vellu (224)   Putra Jaya (200)   Chief Justice (200)   Saddam Hussein (188)   Vincent Tan (164)   Civil Service (154)   Parti KeADILan (148)   Islamic State (118)   Johore Bahru (100)   Sungei Buloh (94)   Bukit Tinggi (88)   Abdul Razak (80)   Pengkalen Pasir (68)   Ting Pek (64)   Armed Forces (59)   Soviet Union (58)

Malay Dominance (58)   Yong Teck (56)   Hong Kong (56)   Human Rights (56)   Syed Hamid (54)   Puteri UMNO (52)   Islam Hadhari (52)   Royal Commission (51)   Hussein Onn (51)   Rafidah Aziz (48)   Indian Congress (48)   Open House (44)   Vision Schools (44)   Shah Alam (44)   Malay Unity (42)   Chua Jui (42)   Abdul Taib (42)   Ampang Jaya (36)   Ras Adiba (36)

Osama Bin Laden (36)   Nik Aziz Nik (20)   Ling Liong Sik (18)   Lee Kuan Yew (18)

High Court Judge (14)   Wan Azizah Wan (9)   Lim Kit Siang (9)   Megat Junid Megat (8)

Mahathir (2960)

Anwar (2399)