The Umno divisional elections did not go as the leaders expected. The Fauzi fallout could still bring about the resignation of the man he accused of corruption - former Pahang mentri besar and now information minister and Umno secretary-general.

> The UMNO Kelantan division chief, Dato' Fauzi Abdul Rahman, > nettles UMNO leaders so badly that the ACA visits a > cooperative he chairs, and takes away documents relating to > its latest annual reports. No hint of wrongdoing is hurled > at him, but it is to unnerve him. The documents taken away, > in any ACA visit, is returned rarely or not at all, and > throws any organisation into confusion. This is to divert > attention from the main problem: his allegation that the > UMNO secretary-general, information minister and former > mentri besar of Pahang, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob, had misused > the state's wealth. It threw UMNO leaders into a tailspin > and the matter is not discussed in public any more. An > internal investigation is ordered, the police and the ACA > react with total unconcern. >
> This one has come to expect. Look at the tens of > police reports filed against the cabinet by the jailed > former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and > his supporters. Not one is seriously looked into. It is > not, in the government's considered view, the cabinet > ministers who ought to be destroyed but Dato' Seri Anwar. > But the inaction is more from fear of political > consequences. Those in the cabinet privately agree that if > investigations are allowed to proceed to its logical > conclusion, there would be a queue outside Sungei Buloh > prison to rub shoulders for a few years with the VIP > prisoner there. The police reports of ministerial and > official corruption helps keep Dato' Seri Anwar on the high > moral ground culturally; and Dato' Fauzi's report questions > UMNO moral standing. That Dato' Fauzi is still close to > Dato' Seri Anwar makes it even more so. >
> The Prime Minister clearly was caught offside when the > crisis blew into his face. Tan Sri Khalil and Dato' Fauzi > married step-sisters. They were close. One supported the > other. Both mounted a solid front to maintain their hold on > Kelantan UMNO. But the Anwar affair unscrambled it. Dato' > Fauzi did not hide his ties with Dato' Seri Anwar, was one > of the first at the house in Bukit Damansara after the > latter was sacked from UMNO and the government in September > 1998. But, in the view of UMNO leaders', pro-Anwar backers > in the party, especially in government, must be > systematically rooted out. This is one such. It has blown > into their collective faces. It does not matter here what > happens to Dato' Fauzi, as it does not matter, in the larger > political and cultural context, what happens to his jailed > friend.
>
> UMNO tells the world it follows rules no one else does. > The law is not to investigate their misdoings, but its > leaders' enemies. The home mininster, Dato' Seri Abdullah > Ahmad Badawi, should have asked the police, not the UMNO > disciplinary committee, to investigate Dato' Fauzi's > charges. For what is at stake is UMNO's, and the > government's, credibility. It is taken in panic, in the > belief that if the mainstream media does not report what > happens, it is all right. But UMNO's right to lead the > Malays is challenged politically and culturally. Every > action its leaders take enhances this Malay belief that > UMNO's time is past. It has descended from the national > movement it once was to another political party. The > political mistakes of its leaders in the past come to haunt > it.
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> Indeed, the greater threat to UMNO now is what happens > when the next prime minister, whoever he is, takes office. > Yes, in the UMNO musical chairs heirarchial chart, it should > be Dato' Seri Abdullah. But he cannot, in the current > political climate, repair the Malay ground view against > UMNO. He has become, as deputy prime minister, too > confrontational to unite the disparate groups. The > infighting amongst the UMNO leaders comes out into the open. > The relationship between the Prime Minister and his finance > minister is so bad that one should expect a public explosion > soon. What made it worse is the EPF and KWAP bailout of > TimeDotCom share fiasco and the the government purchase of > MAS shares to bailout Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli. >
> I am told of one top secret meeting, in the presence of > others, at which Dr Mahathir questioned Tun Daim about both, > and wanted to know EPF exposure in "this private company" -- > TimeDotCom. Tun Daim did not have the figures, one of those > irrelevant figures that slipped off his mind, and Dr > Mahathir wanted the answers within a week. That deadline is > past, and the figures remain unknown. This could well be > how the two men discuss matters of state, and there is > nothing unusual about it. But then I hear of Tun Daim > telling his acolytes: that whereas once he saw his boss six > or seven times a day, it is now once in six or seven days. > The Prime Minister has come to his senses, realises a lot > done in his name now sinks him. He had had his waking hours > spent on how to destroy his nemesis, when others on his side > spent time and effort on how to destroy him. That is Dr > Mahathir Mohamed's Malay Dilemma. >
> M.G.G. Pillai
> pillai@mgg.pc.my
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This piece appeared in my Chiaroscuro column in malaysiakini (www.malaysiakini.com) today, 02 April 01, minus the reference to the National Front in Pahang.

When the Pahang state assemblyman, Dato' Fauzi Abdul Rahman, alleged, in a police report, the UMNO secretary-general, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob, is corrupt, he made UMNO run around in circles. Its president, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, is shell-shocked, cannot understand it. He calls for an internal investigation, instructs the Displinary Commission under the former foreign minister, Tengku Ahmad Rithaudeen, to do it. Instead of letting it do its job, the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who after saying the committee had been appointed, now says it would have three or four members. This raises two interesting questions: Is the disciplinary commission allowed to do its work if it is second-guessed, as now? What is the disciplinary commission to do? I spoke to a few members, who tell me UMNO has given it no guidelines on what money politics is. Without it, how could it do its work?

UMNO is in a spot. It does not want a by-election. But it faces one it can lose. The UMNO Kuantan division chief, Dato' Fauzi Abdul Rahman, cannot defend his post because 20 branches in the division would not nominate him; he only got nine. He lodges a police report against the UMNO secretary-general and former mentri besar, Tan Sri Khalil Yaacob of abuse of power, alleges a conspiracy to unseat him with bribery, resigns as state assemblyman for Baserah in Pahang. The Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, says it is "illogical" for him to do it since the people, not UMNO, elected him. Dato' Fauzi looks at it differently: he was elected on a National Front ticket, and if his party disowned him, he must, in conscience, resign. UMNO is upset a state assemblyman resigns on principle; he insists he can remain in UMNO politics and remain a friend of the jailed former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. UMNO insists that its president's enemy must be yours too.

The Prime Minister said in Pahang if Malays wanted meritocracy they could have it, but they should not then expect preferential places in local universities and elsewhere. The other races, however you look at it, are beaten down to medicrity, and impediments placed when they do not conform. About the same time, the one attempt to have a newspaper which at least reports the news lost its focus, and the Sun threatens to return to mediocrity and mark time with the establishment newspapers. The internationally known business man of unquestioned repute, with a remarkable penchant to sue journalists and news organisations for defamation, Tan Sri Vincent Tan, is back in the saddle. When the former banker, Mr Tong Kooi Yong, offered to buy the Sun off him, he offloaded the RM100 million and more in debt to Danamodal, and did for RM30 million. He realised the news business brought him headaches galore, especially with his penchant to sue anyone who does not view him as he views himself. I should know.

The son of a traditional aristocrat, Tun Razak held the hereditary post of Harbour Master of the Sungei Pahang (Dato' Shahbandar Sungei Pahang). But the aristocracy is cultural and showered no great wealth. So, to paint him as a poor man who went barefoot to school is to make him out to be what he is not and demeans his memory.

In the general elections in November 1999, the BN, despite its four-fifths majority in Parliament and retaining all but two states, saw its Malay electoral diminishing before its eyes. In the two by-elections since, in Pahang and Negri Sembilan, the BN won only on the Chinese votes, the Malay decidedly moving towards the opposition.

Come tha next general election, if they remain in office with no support in the state, they would have to become accustomed to sit on the opposition benches. The Pahang mentri besar, Dato' Seri Adnan Yaakob understands this equation better than most: he strengthens his hold by moving away from Kuala Lumpur as quickly as he can. The Selangor mentri besar and the Malacca chief minister are there only for their loyalty to the Prime Minister. The mentri besar of Negri Sembilan has outlived his political influence in the state. As the Gerakan chief minister in Penang and the UMNO mentri besar in Perlis. With the opposition, especially PAS, hard on its heels, the mentris besar must have local National Front support to keep his control. If that could only by moving away from Kuala Lumpur and the Prime Minister, they would.

The BN central government acted swiftly to put the upstart PAS government in its place. Especially when it realised that, with higher petroleum prices, the five per cent royalties Trengganu received from Petronas for its offshore oil exploration would double to RM850 million in 2000. It is paid in two instalments, the first for RM436 million paid in February. But Petronas would not expand its refinery in Kertih, its petroleum hub in Malaysia, and move instead to Gebeng, across the Pahang border. Soon, this became a test of wills between Trengganu and Petronas, on the one hand, and Kuala Lumpur on the other. Kuala Lumpur could not move. Petronas, its hands tied, is embarrassed. Needless to say, the second royalty payment of RM480 million will not be paid.

The mentri besar of Pahang, Dato' Seri Adnan Yaakob, often has choice epithets, backed with physical signs, for his political opponents, especially in PAS. He is abrasive, brash, foul-mouthed as occasion demands, and, in UMNO's view, a good man to have on its side, when such occasions can grab headlines. But a boor apart, he is also a shrewd politician. Few thought he could carve a political constituency of his own, succeeding a man who in eleven years personified the state and UMNO in it. But he has. He distances himself from the man he succeeded, Tan Sri Khalil Yaacob, now the UMNO secretary-general and information minister. First, he demanded that he be made the state UMNO liaison chief, a post traditionally held by the mentri besar. When UMNO dragged his feet, he threatened to resign and force a by-election. Tan Sri Khalid resigned, he took over. He now blames Tan Sri Khalid for the state's indebtedness, and says, in public, that that means development in the state must take a backseat.

Islamic department officials double up as moral police, overlooking the constitutional guarantee of every citizen allowed to profess his or her own faith. So, they arrest girls at beauty contests, not at the beginning but, after ogling at them during it, at the end. The Trengganu religious affairs department, when the state was in UMNO hands, raided the Pantai Primula hotel a decade ago and arrested a Thai married couple, detained them in jail because they could not produce their marriage certificate. He was the Thai defence attache, he and his wife there on an official visit, were Buddhists. It caused a diplomatic incident. About 25 years ago, the Pahang religious affairs officials arrested a Singapore Hindu and his Muslim bride, allowed under the island laws, for khalwat when on their honeymoon in Cameron Highlands, causing a needless diplomatic incident. Until about a decade ago, Malaysian Muslims could marry "women of the book" -- Jews and Catholics -- without their spouses converting to Islam. The late Tan Sri Zain Azrai married a Jewish girl who retained her faith until she converted so that his promotion would not be hindered. The late Tun Mohamed Suffian's wife, Toh Puan Bunny, never converted but on her death, her body was forcibly seized by the religious officials to be buried as a Muslim in Kuala Kangsar. But the government raised the Islamic ante to displace PAS from its Islamic perch, but does it so hamfistedly that it redounds on its own sanity.

In those days, most Malaysians went to study in London as opposed to the United Kingdom. Malaysia's independent leaders in their student days could meet there to discuss the country's future because it was a convenient meeting point. But to suggest that Tengku Abdul Rahman would meet in Malaysia Hall with Tun Abdul Razak and others is to bend the historical truth. The independence leaders had returned home by the time Malaysia Hall was leased in 1951. Indeed, by then the Tengku had become president of UMNO, Tun Abdul Razak was state secretary of Pahang, Tan Sri Ghazali Shafie in the Malayan civil service. They could have had meetings there on subsequent meetings but they certainly did not discuss their hopes for the future of Malaya in Malaya Hall, as it was then known.

The Prime Minister planned to celebrate yesterday's general elections, convinced of doing better than in 1995. He did, if you compare the 1995 and yesterday's election results; but when he dissolved the House, he had 168. The National Front was returned in 149 parliamentary constituencies, but it was a celebration he would rather not have had. The Chinese swing, pronounced in Sabah and Sarawak, was so complete that the opposition did not have a chance. But that Chinese support came with a near total alienation of the northern Malay cultural heartland. It is all but wiped out in Trengganu and Kelantan, with the ground shaken in Perlis, Kedah and Pahang. The Malay ground, shaken since the affair of He Who Must Be Destroyed At All Cost last year, went against him, taking as casualities four cabinet ministers, six deputy ministers, one minister-to-be, one chief minister, several state executive councillors. So complete was the Chinese swing towards the National Front that the DAP's key leaders, including Mr Lim Kit Siang and Mr Kapral Singh, lost both parliament and state constituencies. The Chinese aggressiveness within the National Front would not now have a rational response from the opposition.

But their replacements were brought in to ensure -- as both deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and finance minister, Tun Daim Zainuddin, wanted -- to ensure the sidelining of the education minister and UMNO vice president, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak. The Pahang mentri besar, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob, replaces Tok Mat as information minister and the promotion of Dato' Seri Kadir Sheikh Fadhir to culture, arts and tourism. The former has a brief to shortcircuit the political ambitions of Dato' Seri Najib; with his successor ensuring that the education minister is contained in his Pekan constituency. Ostensibly, Tan Sri Khalil did a brilliant job as the National Front operations director of the Sabah elections. Dato' Seri Kadir is another promoted for his Sabah election role. So, we now have three in the cabinet whose reputations are refurbished for their alleged roles in Sabah; the other is the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi himself. But Dato' Seri Kadir has another plus on his side: he is firmly with Tun Daim. He was one of those dropped as deputy minister in an earlier reshuffle, but got back in by literally crying before the Prime Minister to be kept on; He was, was on his way out when fate struck him a kind blow. The best laid plans of men and mice ... Amen!

Mutiny may be a harsh word, in the circumstances, but shifting alignments, especially by the Penghulu, is not. When the Prime Minister and his ilk excoriate his nemesis, and retract businesses and projects of his cronies, the Penghulu quietly and inexplicably throws a lifeline to He Who Must Be Destroyed At All Cost. While contracts are publicly cancelled from some Anwar-linked companies, others linked more blatantly are given equally lucrative contracts. The Abrar Group were awarded contracts to build four district hospitals -- in Sungei Patani, Kedah; in Ampang, Selangor; in Temerloh, Pahang; and in Setiu, Trengganu. The Sungei Patani hospital contract was taken away and given to consortium of Universal Builders and Bina Darul Aman; in the latter company, a company called Maluri, whose relationship to the Penghulu is not a million miles apart, has a 30 per cent stake. In the Ampang hospital, Abrar had not only started work, but it is built on Abrar land; the government dragged its feet until it promised Abrar the contract provided it dealth with an Australian healthcare company which Peremba, which has the same relationship to the Penghulu as Maluri, was fortuitious in taking control of the Australian company before the offer Abrar could not refuse. In the twists and turns of Bolehland insider antics, Peremba suddenly becomes a prime player when this, and other hospitals, are eventually privatised; it also poses unwelcome competition to the Bin Mahathir-controlled Tongkah Holdings in the hospital privatisation business.

The works minister, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, is intent on ensuring that the National Front would lost control -- or at least lose ground -- in the East Coast states of Pahang, Trengganu and Kelantan. His announcement over the weekend that the toll rates on the Kuala Lumpur-Karak Highway would rise by 275 per cent to a total of RM6.60 for motor cars -- RM4.20 at the Gombak toll gate and RM2.40 at the Bentong gate -- apparently without MTD Prime even asking for it smacks both of highway robbery and political shortsightedness. The isolation of the area because of the high toll rates and the absence of alternate roads which was solemnly promised at the time of the privatisation would change the political scene.

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