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UMNO Zwugswamgs Itself

My Chiaroscuro column in malaysiakini (www.malaysiakini.com) on 26 April 01

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malaysiakini

Thursday, 26 April 01

Umno zugzwangs itself

CHIAROSCURO
MGG Pillai

2:42pm, Thu: There is a new political game in town. Umno leaders fall over each other to excoriate money politics as the source of all evil in the party. They accept how serious it is, appoint a special committee of party elders to look into claims, but would not let it do its work.

Ever so often, the Umno president, his deputy or one of the vice-presidents pontificate on how it could destroy Umno and politics, missing the point that what they say is received with a big yawn.

The Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is the Umno president, wants the filthy rich to be barred from holding office in the party; he wants no more contracts given to Umno members, which confirms they always have been.

The deputy prime minister and Umno deputy president, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, talks of how serious money politics is, as if his position is at stake if he does not speak about it when he gets a chance.

A vice-president, Muhyiddin Yassin, blames it all on how candidates for Umno office are nominated.

They grasp at straws. Money politics go hand in hand with Umno. Government projects go to Umno members or companies in which they have a prominent share. Even foreign companies need an Umno partner to succeed.

Every privatisation project, all failures, go to Umno cronies and courtiers, if not senior leaders themselves. But they have to pour part of their profits into Umno directly and indirectly. There is no escape from this. No one talks about it, but it is a fact of life.

Nothing unusual

There is nothing unusual about it. It is an unseen and unmentioned way in which political parties around the world collect funds, especially when in office. So, why is a fetish made about the large payments from those who benefit from the system?

To sideline the rich, as Dr Mahathir wants, from politics would not resolve Umno's ills. This rich benefitted from this political patronage, and are cronies, siblings and courtiers of the establishment to boot.

Daim Zainuddin's extensive business empire, controlled by his cronies and courtiers, is why the Malay moves away from Umno and Dr Mahathir had to act. But how he did is not how to.

Complaints about corruption in party elections is not new. So, why does Abdullah ignore the special Umno committee looking into it? Was he and Umno not serious about this in previous elections?

Why is it so important now? One man was expelled from Umno more than a decade ago for allegedly spending RM6 million to become a branch chairman. But if as the news suggests it is an endemic problem, why are the culprits, as local newspapers would put it, not brought to book?

Muhyiddin is disingenuous to insist that money politics in Umno elections came about because candidates must clear several hurdles, including support from more than his own branch and division for office, even at division level.

But Dr Mahathir had reworked the rules so that he would not be challenged as Umno president, especially after Umno was split in 1988.

When Muhyiddin's special Umno committee recommended that this restriction be dropped, the Umno extraordinary general meeting in November refused to. It would be more difficult to do that in a future Umno meeting.

Umno trapped

Umno is caught in a trap of its own making. The leaders in office wanted a system that restricts new leaders emerging. Then new ministers and deputy ministers are elected from those not elected members of parliament, causing the Umno rank and file to cry foul.

The Umno ground seethes at this. It sees Umno as a political party that ensures its leaders hold power for all time.

There are two views of Umno. The leaders insist, only they can lead and support the Malays and ensure a democratic multiracial society; the other that the Malay sees Umno as un-Malay, for it exists as a political party of the Malays, and not its cultural continuance.

He is incensed at the pettiness and cynicism with which the government of the day, controlled by Umno, tries to destroy the jailed former deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim.

There is no meeting point between the two extreme views, and Umno leaders now think this can be resolved by locking up those who disagree with it under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

The time for that is passed. Umno members drift away to PAS and Keadilan. Umno members stay away from party meetings. One Umno life member formed a PAS branch on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur recently. It reflects a malaise within, which Umno leaders do not want to discus.

Pound of flesh

If Umno wants another reason for its problems, it is the curious decision to bring to court the five outstanding charges against Anwar this week. The Attorney-General's chambers is coy if the charges would be withdrawn or proceeded with. To do so within two months of the Umno general assembly is madness.

It does not matter if the cases are withdrawn or proceeded with. Either way, the government is forced on the defensive. It would have been more elegant to ignore the charges. But Umno wants nothing more than its pound of flesh from Anwar for putting it in such parlous straits.

Like the problem over his medical treatment, the government, and therefore Umno, is caught, whatever action it takes.

This mishandling, not corruption, money politics, nor questionable election rules, which puts Umno in a political straitjacket. Even if the leaders resign and leave it to new reforming leaders.

If Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah is brought into Umno's inner circle, he could staunch the support a while.

For that, it does not matter if 3,000 or 30,000 complaints about branch elections are filed, or if the rules must be changed. Umno is, after all, a political party that cannot win back supporters it persistently loses.

That is at the bottom of the Umno dilemma.

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*zugzwang n. in chess, when any move weakens the position.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my