Since the BN is also in power, it rode rough shod over the institutions. It ignored parliament and the state assemblies, and ruled by fiat. It brooked no Opposition, in parliament and in the state assemblies, and with untrammelled powers, isolated or sacked those who disagreed. In other words, the BN became an exclusive party of hangers on, there for no purpose than hang on to office. Nothing else mattered. But this also brought within it a parallel leadership of a nay force of those sidelined or ignored, and which could not be easily destroyed. A crisis was all it needed for it to surface. This election, by its huge BN victory, paradoxically, empowered it as well. So when the BN should smile at its huge victory, it must now confront this internal convulsion: those now sidelined and dropped would now automatically join this nay force.

UMNO IS UNCHALLENGED. IT is in total control. Malaysia, and the National Front (BN), must play second fiddle to it. It is, to use the hackneyed phrase, lord of all it surveys. Yet it comes at an unacceptably high cost. Riding rough shod over the Opposition is routine, though not over UMNO leaders out of the loop. The strident accusations of foul play in the recent general elections, which allowed it to be returned to office with a nine-tenths majority in Parliament, and the continual unearthing of the evidence, can be swept aside, but not when the target is these UMNO leaders. On the face of it, nothing can stop the UMNO-led BN to dominate politics, government and Malaysia for the next five years. But that cannot be more wrong. For it is UMNO, more than the BN, that rushes to prevent itself from breaking apart. Its huge electoral majority has opened wounds that would not have if the majority was not as dramatic. If it is not handled with care, all hell could break loose. That it could is now accepted by the top UMNO leaders. They move to remove it by promising undemocratic methods to annoint the pretenders to the office.

THE GENERAL ELECTIONS IS over. The new cabinet is installed. The man of the hour is he who led the National Front (BN) to victory, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. He is praised sky high now as only Malaysians know how. He, and he alone, is responsible for the BN's decimation, literally, of the Opposition. The BN, if you recall, is in the new parliament, with 90 per cent of the 219 seats. The honeymoon is still on. What he says, rates banner headlines in the Malaysian mainstream media. But he states trite homilies so often and has yet to show what he is capable of that if he does not curb it would turn to hit him. He promised a break with the past, at least that is how Malaysians saw his appointment as prime minister. But all he has so shown so far is to not upset the status quo. If the Tun Mahathir cabinet he inherited was unwieldy, the Pak Lah cabinet is more so: all he did was to add a few men and women known to be loyal to him to the Mahathir list, create more ministries to accommodate them. His new cabinet has 33 cabinet ministers, 38 deputy ministers and 22 parliamentary secretaries, a total of 93. In other words, every other BN MP is a member of the government. They would get into each other's way that nothing could be done.

ABOUT TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE gathered at the PAS headquarters for two nights in a row last week as a fallout from the General Elections that saw the governing National Front (BN) returned to office with its best result since 1955. The euphoria about it ignored the more serious hurt in the Malay hinterland that something is amiss, the general elections flawed, the Malay divide all but irreversible. The parliamentary constituencies are delineated after every second general election. In practice the Election Commission's role in it is to swing votes towards the governing coalition. The Opposition parties accept this for no reason that they can do little about it. They accept that in the first election after this favours the BN, often lopsidedly. But when this advantage is supplemented with other questionable practices, and the Malay ground realises with a shock all is not well, hell would break loose, as now.

WHAT SHOULD FRIGHTEN MALAYSIANS in the wake of the just-concluded general elections is the utter divide within the Malay community in more ways than one: UMNO vs PAS; urban vs rural; culture vs religion; modernity vs fundamentalist pressures; Malays vs the rest. It is a state of mind that could not shift if the National Front (BN), through its leader, finds its harder to return to its cultural fold, and has to prove its hold on to the levers of powers in gerrymandering electorates supplemented by slick Madison Avenue advertising practices and other methods it decries when practiced in other countries. The Opposition, especially PAS, worked on principle to get its message across, but it was swamped with an electoral campaign that left it trailing badly. But the lopsided result in which the BN got 198 seats in parliament, six more than the former Parliament had, and 11 of the 13 states - there was no state assembly elections in Sarawak - does not tell the whole story. In actual votes cast, the Opposition held its ground, especially in the Malay heartland. This elections imparted further the principle and good naturedness does not count, only brute force, deviousness, and the slickness of Madison Avenues, even the use of subliminal advertising is all that matters.

On the face of it, there is no inspired appointment in this cabinet. He wants, like Tun Mahathir, a cabinet of loyalists, would brook no Opposition, within the feudal framework he becomes accustomed to. He has opened himself to attack in the states where he appointed several mentris besar at odds with the palace - Dato' Seri Shahidan Kassim in Perlis, Dato' Seri Adnan Yaakob in Pahang, Dato' Seri Mohamed Ali Rastam in Malacca, amongst others - and this could cause needless problems later on. But all told, in the circumstances, he has done well. He needs time to get used to the new circumstances, which while it entrenches the BN, and UMNO, hold on politics, he must fashion a policy to explain why, for the first time since the first elections in 1955, the Malays are for the first time in a minority in the new parliament. In this single-minded desire to frustrate the Islamist and multiracial Malay Opposition with the help of the Chinese, the UMNO president allowed Malay representation in parliament to be less than 50 per cent. It made the mistake in Sabah and Sarawak when it assumed that anyone with a name that looked Malay - the chief minister of Sabah, Dato' Seri Musa Aman, the chief minister of Sarawak, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, or the former Sabah chief minister, Dato' Seri Salleh Said Keruak, call themselves bumiputras, not Malay, indeed are not Malay but of Indian and Melanau blood. With PAS all but decimated in parliament, the majority of Malays in parliament would come from UMNO, and that is less than one hundred in a house of 219. Pak Lah is in more pressure than he realises. Which is why the coalition partners who forced him to chose could well pay dearly for their impudence.

These polls, on hindsight, suggests only that it was part of the larger plan to hijack the four Malay states. Should international Opposition to what happen surface, Malaysia now has "independent" polls, in a format the Westerners can understand, to divert criticism. That criticism would not come now: the Opposition PAS, in the worldview of those on the side of might and right, is more closely alighned to the Taliban than democracy. So, it is all right to defeat them by fair means and foul.

Tan Sri Rashid's once-ebullient self-confidence, and his utter contempt for "Opposition" parties, makes way, after the elections, to not contriteness but arrogance, that if the polls were improperly conducted, how could it be his fault? He was not there at every polling station to see for himself. How could he? So how can he be blamed? Of course, he would not resign, unless he and his election commissioners, the latter with no role but to rubber stamp his dictates, can be proved to be personally liable. What he should realise, if he has not already, is that with all parties, including the BN, baying for his blood, his future as EC chairman is about to come to a sticky end. If this mess gets further, and edges closer to the inner circle of government, men like him would be the sacrifical lambs to feed the baying wolves cheated of fair and free elections. It is easier, after all, to get rid of him than, God Forbid, call for fresh elections. He made sure, before the polls, only the BN is favoured, the final electoral list what is handed out on the morning of nomination day, made it impossible for political parties to buy additional copies of the printed list and the CD Roms without sacrificing an arm and a leg.

THE NATIONAL FRONT (BN) is home and dry in last week's general election, returned to office with half a dozen more seats than the old parliament had, affirmed the electoral legitimacy of its new leader, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, shaking off at the same time any influence his predecessor, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, had had on him in his first five months as prime minister. He literally decimated the Opposition in the new parliament, reclaimed the Malay heartland, sidelined the Islamist Opposition, took the looming political battle over Islamic supremacy in Malaysia out of parliamentary overview while shutting out non-Malay involvement in it. He shook the Opposition PAS to the bone, routing it in Trengganu, badly dented its control of Kelantan; reduced the multiracial National Justice Party (KeADILan) into a crisis from which it could take years to recover; with the Democratic Action Party (DAP) its main Opposition in parliament and a PAS all but voiceless, that on first sight justifies the euphoric sentiment of the Malaysian and foreign press and market sentiment.

THE NATIONAL FRONT WON an unexpected landslide victory in yesterday's (21 March 2004), the best since it as the Alliance won 51 of 52 constituencies for the Federal Legislative Assembly in 1955. It is a result that defies statistical probability and logic. It swept the Malay states, routed PAS in Trengganu, a cliff hanger in Kelantan, where the votes are still being recounted, decimated the National Justice Party, KeADILan, and made its president, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, unbeatable in his own right. The only KeADILan MP is its president, Datin Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. PAS saw its hopes dashed so thoroughly that it would be awhile before it recovers. The only Opposition of any note comes from the Democratic Action Party (DAP). But this BN victory also calls into question the Election Commission's impartiality and ability to conduct elections. It stepped in in Selangor when as polls were about to close it was clear the BN and the Opposition were running neck to neck. Without warning, it extended the voting by two hours, breaking its own rules and without consulting the candidates. It was during this time that BN bussed in a surge of voters that turned the tide. Pak Lah's brilliant mandate comes with it deep-seated questions of fairness of the election process.

THE ELECTION COMMISSION IS a law unto itself in the conduct of general elections in Malaysia. It decrees what must be but it is not competent to carry it out. It had gazetted the general election today for between 0800 and 1700. It can be extended only with the consent of the candidates, not even the political parties they represent. But the EC did so on its own in Selangor, for the whole state, by two hours to 1900. The Opposition, and some BN, candidates are furious, and are caught by surprise. It does not matter. What the EC wants, it gets. If the EC decides to break the law, as it has, it can. In its books, it is more important for the BN to be returned to power by hook or by crook than ensure fair and clean elections. It distinguishes political parties as in the government and in the Opposition, when it knows full well that they are, in its eyes, political parties. This is not the end of the matter. The clean, corrupt free administration the new prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, promised is frayed from the start, if he does not react sharply to distance himself, perhaps to reassert his authority call for fresh elections nationwide, with a new EC in charge.

AT EVERY MALAYSIAN GENERAL election, the governing coalition, once known as the Alliance and now the National Front (BN), had the edge. It has dominated politics since the first in 1955. It has governed all the states but it has now lost control of two Malay states and could well, if it loses ground, two more. But for the first time, in the 2004 election, the old magic did not work. It did not know until 48 hours before polling tomorrow (21 March 2004) that the ground shifts from it. The BN president, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, went into the polls believing all is well, that the Anwar shock in 1999 would not bother it now, the same short term magic of the past would damn the Opposition as it almost always has. But his optimistic hopes for an electoral sweep - he aims for a four-fifths majority in parliament - had to be drastically revised downwards as the BN had to fight for every inch of ground. And the stark reality that every plan to trap the Opposition backfired on it instead. The arrest of two BN workers for entrapment shocked the BN heirarchy and it quickly distanced itself from it. Its plan failed. It is not difficult to see why. Those who would have carried out this plan include those who moved to PAS and KeADILan after Dato' Seri Anwar was sacked, humiliated and jailed. They moved to neutralise the BN plan.

"OVER THE PAST FEW days," says the New Straits Times today (19 March 2004, p4) "more than 600,000 letters from the PM (Prime Minister Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) have been sent out to 'balik kampung' voters - that bloc of the electorate who reside outside their place of birth but are registered to vote in their hometowns." How did the National Front (BN) know who these voters are, if the self-proclaimed fiercely independent Election Commission did not feed that to it? It is also clear government facilities are used to send these flyers out. No political party, including the BN and its 14 component parties, could mount an exercise as this on its own in the eight days available between nomination and polling day. The BN has had much help from the government departments, its agencies and the EC. Let we forget, the EC does all it can to frustrate the Opposition. Its chairman talks of government and Opposition parties when it is clear that once Parliament and the state assemblies are dissolved, there is neither Opposition nor governing parties. The prime minister is the caretaker prime minister, and the ministers mere caretakers.

THE ELECTION COMMISION HAS, in one way, forced the Opposition to resort to guerrila tactics to unnerve the National Front (BN). Information is in the public domain of what several BN candidates thought was hidden. The SMS - short messaging system - via mobile phones is so widespread, and what it contains is so damaging and yet difficult to check at short notice. But it spreads - and believed - wildly, like any electronic message. One I got an hour ago - that the former MP for Jempol, and former deputy minister, Dato' Seri Khalid Yunos, angry at being dropped, walked over to PAS with 9,000 of his supporters. Is this true? I do not know. But it must unnerve the outgoing Negri Sembilan mentri besar, Tan Sri Mohamed Isa Samad, who is the candidate for Jempol. It does not matter if the methods used is questionable - as indeed many a method used by the BN is - but it is adopted and used so the end justifies the means. When the BN does not deny it quickly, and disbelieved when that is in the official media, these tactics acquire a truth - and life - of its own.

THE NATIONAL FRONT (BN) IS all set for its two thirds majority. The prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, wants a higher majority in 1999. It could, indeed would, get it. When the constituencies are re-drawn, every second general election, the first of two is heavily weighted in the BN's favour. The fiercely independent Election Commission will see to that. It knows who pays its bills and its fate if it does not deliver. In the second, it loses ground because the Opposition has worked the new ground. This is the first election after the constituencies were re-drawn. But it finds it tough going, fighting off a determined Opposition push to dislodge its hold. And it does not always work. Now the BN enemy is the Malay Opposition - PAS and KeADILan - than the Chinese-based political parties like the now defunct Socialist Front and the main Opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) it was for the first 20 years of independent Malaysia.

It is instances like this that throw doubt on how fair and free Malaysian elections are. What happened in Kepala Batas is neither rare nor unusual. The National Front (BN) has done it all the time. In the 1970s, it was rampant. The EC stood by and watched, not helpless but by looking the other way, as the then Sabah strong man, Tun Mustapha Datu Harun, rode rough shod over the Opposition, buying or forcing them to withdraw from the election for a clean sweep. Those who persisted were physically assaulted, or their families threatened. One was tied with a dog chain under his own house so he could not file his nomination papers. Variations of this is seen in every election in Sabah since. The election rules are rewritten to make it difficult to challenge the BN. Elections, for instance, must be held between nine days and 60 days of dissolution of parliament and the state assemblies. The EC decides it should within the minimum allowed.

It insists it should be the minimum. It totes out the usual suspects why it must: racial clashes, public security, and other dubious reasons. It is for this public rallies are banned. But when it is not election time, public rallies are held regularly, with or without police permits, by the government and Opposition without any sign of political or racial uncertainty. Let us not forget we had public rallies during the worst time in our history: during the Communist Emergency, in the midst of confrontation with Indonesia. The politics were more heated then, but apart from the usual breach of the peace nothing untoward happened. This official fear is a manufactured fear, after the racial riots that followed the 1969 general election, to justify what in fact is an UMNO coup in the massive constitutional changes after that. Its aim was two fold: to prevent the non-Malays, especially the Chinese, from holding the government to ransom, and to ensure the government would forever be Malay, if not UMNO, run and dominated.

This election, like in every past election, is to annoint the National Front (BN) in with a two-thirds majority to Parliament. The crisis occurs when it does not, as in 1969. While parliament is the prize, the battle for control is in the states. The Opposition knows that denying the two-thirds majority in the states puts the BN on the defensive, but the best it can hope is to retain the Kelantan and Trengganu it has, deny the BN the two-thirds majority, and make every constituency a marginal one. But the Opposition knows that to form the government in the state is a double-edged sword: every BN-controlled state is not only on the verge of bankruptcy but also owes hundreds of millions of ringgit, as PAS was to find out when it took charge of Kelantan and Trengganu.

This is why the BN's selection of its candidates could not be released until the last possible minute. Instead of a full final list, each component party released its own, making for a mixed bag, while the Opposition released one complete list, with the problems limited to a few seats, and mostly between DAP and KeADILan. And that is ironed out soon enough. The BN believes that with a two-thirds majority the internal problems would be resolved. They would not. They would fester, if no attempt is made to right them. The BN must reorganise itself to make the component parties more responsive to the ground, and allow the ground consulted more often so it would not feel left out. For what BN and UMNO faces now is that the old political slogans and beliefs have to be drastically reoriented to bring in the new voter, in his teens, who has nothing in common with the tired old ideas which BN holds dear, but which has lost all relevance. Individual UMNO leaders accept this need, but they would not speak out. They leave it to the UMNO president to sort that out.

It is often ignored that the BN's difficulties would compound if he loses the Malay ground. He depends on Sabah, Sarawak and Johore to vote solidly for BN, and his two-thirds majority from elsewhere in the peninsular. In this, he did not consider the Malay ground, and left it too late to work the Malay ground, where UMNO, in many areas, is a stranger. In this election, UMNO is in double jeopardy: it has not worked the ground, allowing the Opposition PAS to make hay; it could work around it with money, but many a BN election centre has not yet the funds from Kuala Lumpur to start work. If it is not ready now, two days before nomination day, and then before election day, it cannot be. One I know which is not is in Bentong, where the Pahang mentri besar, Dato' Adnan Yaakub, hails from. But this is in every state, and cannot be resolved at short notice.

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