THE MINISTER OF INFORMATION, Dato' Seri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadhir, has suddenly discovered the Rukun Negara, enunciated more than 30 years ago, and promptly ignored, to give a sense of longing to the Chinese and Indians. It was the brainchild of Tun Ghazali Shafie, who was a thinker in residence in addition to the other portfolios he held. His mind is acute then as it is today, although he is in his 80s and confined to a wheel chair. He was unusual among Malaysian minister in that he read widely. But he also wore his arrogance on his sleeve. And that pushed Rukun Negara into the background, its five principles forgotten, ensuring that the New Economic Policy and Malay Dominance without the restraining influence of the Rukun Negara ensured the Malay is dominant and arrogant. Today, Rukun Negara is said to be 'the principle of life', that Malaysians must accept it. It is not the prime minister who says it but his minister of information, who has been fighting as hard to keep his job as the Prime Minister wants to replace him. But the call for Rukun Negara means nothing. It is brought from the dusty cupboard because the powers that be have decided that it is relevant. Does this mean that for 30 years, when it lay forgotten, it did not have any relevance? It is yet another sign that the National Front government flounders.

The May 13 riots, ostensibly because DAP celebrated their victory at the 1969 polls by taunting the Malays at Kampung Bahru after the opposition had got a tie in the state assembly seats in Selangor and Perak. The UMNO reaction as swift. Apart from the NEP and the policy of Malay Dominance, it separated Kuala Lumpur from Selangor, altered the constituencies that the Malay would always have the majority in the state assemblies. The MCA could win only in mixed or Malay majority. The MIC could win only in Malay majority seats. The Indian voters were spread to other constitutiences so that they could not be a threat. Areas like Brickfields were variously of Damansara, Siputeh, KL Bandar in the thirty five years since. The people in power, having made sure their version is the dominant, blame the Chinese for having started May 13. The DAP may have provided the catalyst, but the riots was the result of a deliberate plan. UMNO had the political power and the Chinese are blamed for it. The May 13 riots was to remove the Tengku and downgrade the non-Malays in government. They lost the policy making powers they had from independence. It was a far cry from signing the MCA and MIC presidents signing with UMNO the independence document with Britain to being a digit of the National Front in power today.

Thirty years after the New Economic Policy and that of Malay Dominance, by which non-Malays will hold no position in the government service that they cannot be promoted to any supervisory position in the lower services, and the promotions in the upper services are limited. After the nude squat scandal, the lack of non-Malays were highlighted. The official explanation is that they will not join the government services or the uniformed branch because they are paid better outside. It is the non-Malay view now. They took this view when they found they touched a glass ceiling early. There is an attempt to get non-Malays now, but the non-Malays do not trust the government now. A non-Malay promoted in the civil service means the Malay who recommended him would be penalised. No one wants that for himself, Malay or non-Malay. In the armed services, they retire as lieutenant-colonels or colonels, that latter rank given them in the last year of their service, while most of their Malay juniors had jumped over them. One examples will suffice: a non-Malay police officer retired as assistant superintendent of police, but his batchmate died as deputy inspector-general of police. They had retired in the 1970s, which means they jointed the force in the 1950s, after Merdeka. This would not happen now because the non-Malay would not be selected.

The riots in May 1969 changed all that. Malay Dominance followed the New Economic Policy aimed at giving the Malay political and economic power. But it was decided the non-Malay should be marginalised. The non-Malay partners in the National Front went along, because its leaders served themselves not their communities. In Nibong Tebal, more than 1,000 MCA members joined Parti Keadilan Rakyat. In Sabah, many in UMNO and the National Front are poised to join it. But for a different reason: UMNO is seen as a colonial party, and the National Front its supporters. The locals would join any that is seen as not colonial. The National Front, and UMNO, held on to power with money and underhand means like restraining opponents in an election so that he cannot be a candidate.

The money that is thrown around in Kuala Lumpur is huge: it is not uncommon to have to wait even in the most expensive restaurants. Partly this is due to the culture that the more expensive the dish, the better is. It is a reflection of today's society. But the grandchildren of those who benefitted from the New Economic Policy and Malay Dominance have different views. They do not often believe in the lifestyle of their fathers who live like, or better than, their fathers, and a few defy them. This is a small number, but as the years go, it would increase. Already, some have joined opposition parties. The National Front progaganda regards them as traitors. But few around the country believes it. They could win elections for about ten years more, when the leaders have retired, and new brood of leaders come in the National Front. It will be based on wealth and privilege, and this would widen the breach between the leaders and the others.

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.

But Islam is used to push Dominance. The former Inspector-General of Police, in his column in the Star, has repeated the canard that the non-Malay does not join the government services because of better prospects outside. But the New Economic Polict and Malay Dominance ensured that non-Malays would not, if possible, join the government services. In the early 1970s, when both these policies were implemented. the police only took one Indian inspector and two Chinese inspectors. All lthree have retired, rising to assistant superintendent of police, if he is lucky, and told bluntly they would not go higher. A non-Malay in government services or the uniform branch cannot rise high in his services so they would order Malays around. The non-Malay chief clerks or matrons still in service were appointed before this was in force, and the few that exist would retire soon.

Given the mood, and the relevations, UMNO cannot afford another election in that constituency. It would lose it. The days are gone when the Election Commission and UMNO could decide that the election result would be. This byelection was important for the hidden money spent - about RM100,000 per vote, but Malaysian electoral laws that is allowed so long as it is unofficial, which it is - and the promise to give the state a university if it won. This is like the election in Sabah in 1994 when among the promises made was 394 kilometres of railway. It won that election, but not one kilomtre of railway has been laid in the past 11 years, nor will it ever. But would a university be built in Kelantan, as it promised in Pengkalen Pasir? It would have to set aside money for the university. Gone are the days when National Front promises are made in elections and byelections, with no intention of honouring it. The hidden Malay Dominance policy in force since early 1970, and which has governed elections since, only meant that the National Front, particularly UMNO, must win at any cost, especially if the candidate was an important UMNO leader. It does not work as the National Front thought it would any more,

The elections in Pengkalen Pasir was between UMNO and PAS, and UMNO was represented by the National Front. It has fine tuned the art of putting down the non-Malay over the years, and does so every day but Election day. Malaysians are told that the non-Malay must be put down in favour of the Malay. The reason is Malay Dominance and the New Economic Policy. I agreed with the policy when it first started, and its progenitors agreed at the time it could go wrong but the Malay would overcome their setbacks and would benefit from the government help. The Malay had been given a raw deal by the British, because the immigrant races - the Chinese and Indians - were more energetic, and were favoured. The British trained Malays to be like them, in the early years of the 20th century. The Malay College in Kuala Kangsar was modelled on Eton in the United Kingdom. Those who went to Malay Schools had to be educated in remove class before they could go English schools. On independence in 1957, this social structure was put in effect. The great debates in Parliament in the late 1950s were by political party leaders of all political parties, the Alliance and the opposition, Malay and non-Malay. And which is how I ended up at the English College in Johore Bahru and those in school at that time was Tan Sri Mohamed Rahmat, my class mate, and the former deputy prime minister, Tan Sri Musa Hitam, as my head prefect; others who were in school included Dato' Dominic Puthucheary, the former MCA president Tan Sri Lee San Choon. It would not happen now.

The independent Election Commission is around to ensure the continued dominance of Malay power, not to oversee free elections. Tan Sri Abdul Rashid, said so when he met Keadilan party officials about four years ago. He said in effect that his organisation is around to see that Malays will hold power until kingdom come, and his job is to see that happen. In the Malay Dominance that even Malays deny exists, the role of the Election Commission is to see that UMNO will always be in power. It has taken the current UMNO thinking that Malay=Islam=UMNO Malay. In the 2004 UMNO Youth assembly, a resolution said anyone who left UMNO is a 'traitor to UMNO and a traitor to the Malay race. The resolution was meant to affect Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, but also included in it were the founding father of UMNO, who died a Party Negara leader, Dato' Sir Onn Jaffar; his son, Tun Hussein Onn, who was Malaysia's third prime miniser and father of the UMNO Youth leader; and Tengku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia's first prime minister. This was pointed out and hastily withdrawn. Otherwise, UMNO would also have been forced to remove their portraits from its headquarters.

The Malaysian is mollycodled into voting the National Front, which then illtreats them. In the last 35 years, the rules and law has to take second place to a hidden policy of Ketuanan Melayu (Malay Dominance). This allows the office boy or policeman to ignore the rules and law so long as the non-Malay is put into place. Non-Malay government servants are not given their rightful promotions. I know of one brilliant police officer who retired as an assistant superintendent of police but his Malay batchmate ended up as Inspector-General of Police. This can happen at the best of times, but since 1970 when Ketuanan Melayu became a hidden policy of the Malaysian government, this has occured more often than not. Malay civil servants are promoted for adhering to this than laws and regulations. This group is more powerful than the normal heirarcy that even the secretary-general of a ministry would think twice of going against it. It is an easy step into the present crisis. The government has taken all Asians to reflect its population, and threats them as such. China remonstrated against ill-treating its tourists, but Malaysia at first ignored it.

The MMS clip showed that the police is doing the right thing, that what happenedd in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is normal in Malaysia, that the police here do routinely what the American military does to it prisoners in Iraq. The American military has justified stripping suspects it arrested, and the Malaysian police has justified its standing orders to humiliate anyone in its hands. The members of parliament are surprised and shocked when shown the MMS videoclip in Parliament house two days ago. They are angry, because the MMS videoclip makes them responsible, and responsibility is not what they were elected for. They say what they do not mean, and stay away from the one issue that caused it. But they cannot this time. No body talks of the Malay Dominance - ketuanan Melayu - that caused it. It allows the government and civil servant to ignore the procedures if they carry out this hidden political role. It is this role that allows the police officer to do as he liked. He knows full well that he would be protected. The cabinet can only advise a policeman not to sue a non-Malay student for a complaint against him to the relevant authority. The policeman can do as he likes, and his superior, unless he is a non-Malay, is not punished. When that is the norm, then telling a woman to strip and do the ear squat will not be punished. No amount of soothing talk to the contrary will change that.

But to sustain a major political and cultural policy shift it must be nurtured and strengthened with time. This UMNO did not do. The consequent arrogance that it is lord of all it surveys in Malaysia, with no non-Malay leader in the BN daring to challenge the UMNO president on principle, and this ingrained belief that he is right even when he is wrong made this policy in time moot. The Malay ground cracked when in 1988 the High Court declared UMNO an illegal organisation, a decision the then prime minister and UMNO president, Tun (as he later became) Mahathir Mohamed, accepted. He formed a new UMNO and excluded his rivals, for he realised that in a future UMNO election, he could be defeated. But he cut the umbilical cord that linked UMNO to the Malay community, and UMNO's new found need for National Integration, a policy directly opposed to Malay Dominance, is for its own short-term survival. That it has to look to it upset many a Malay loyalist in UMNO, and the widespread allegations of electoral fraud, was a deliberate move callously taken to reduce this over-reliance on Chinese votes. And is caught in a mess of its own. The Malay ground is incensed, and is more alienated to UMNO than ever.

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