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Leadership by osmosis and the decline of the Malaysian state

The UMNO president, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, as deputy president, moved up when the then president, Dato (later Tun) Hussein Onn, stepped down in 1981. He was elected president shortly after, and has ensured, by hook or by constitutional crook, he is returned unopposed. When challenged in 1987, and all but lost, he did not mind when the courts declared UMNO an illegal body. A new UMNO rose from its ashes in which his presidential opponent, the Hermit of Langgak Golf aka Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, and others, including the two then living UMNO presidents, kept out. He amended the UMNO constitution he would not ever be challenged. And has remained in office for 21 long years. He now faces the prospect of a challenge, as he prepares to hand over power.

He sets the trend in the National Front (BN). The parties in it elect their leaders as UMNO does, by a curious osmosis in which only the current leader would be elected. Challengers and others are sidelined, expelled, or otherwise prevented from challenging the leader; their supporters and backers suddenly find financial and other pressures bearing upon them; some are threatened with bankruptcy. The Malaysian Indian Congress leader, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, as deputy president, succeeded the then MIC president, Tan Sri V. Manickavasagam, who died suddenly in 1978. He has been returned unopposed since, the challengers browbeaten into submission, and sometimes driven out of the party. He now insists he is the only hope of the Indian community, and demands a lien on it and his cabinet post. He curries favour with the prime minister-in-waiting, to press his luck. In Sarawak, the Sarawak National Party (SNAP)'s octogeneraian president would rather the party be destroyed than allow some one other than him be elected its leader.

The Malaysian Chinese Association president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, insists he should continue, even after his solemn promise to step down. He changed his mind after Dr Mahathir, who is also Prime Minister and chairman of BN, ordered him to stay on. The Gerakan president, Dato' Seri Lim Kheng Yaik, clings to office on the same BN principle that once elected, he stays on, come hell or highwater, for life. The Parti Pesaka Bumiputra leader, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, is in office for more than two decades. As has the Parti Bersatu Sabah leader, Dato' Joseph Pairin Kitingan. The opposition parties catch on to this convenient method of remaining in office. Every opposition party leader follows the time-tested BN method for its leader to stay in office unchallenged. The DAP leader, Mr Lim Kit Siang, was until recently its unchallenged leader for more than 30 years. He still exerts considerable influence from behind the scenes as chairman. In Malaysia, political parties exist, especially in BN, so its leaders can hold office for life.

Once this principle is accepted, the party leader has a slate of candidates who must be re-elected without question. So we have moribund leaders who make a career of it. One ambassador told me recently Malaysia is the only country in the world where cabinet ministers hold office for decadess as a rule. Since the party leaders usually are in the cabinet, they would not give up easily. For the quickest way into the black hole of Malaysian history is to leave his source of power -- the cabinet or state assembly. So while there is the usual kerfuffle at party elections -- whichever the party -- the results are predictable. The party member who challenges the leader is foolhardy as to invite physical abuse and worse. One man who did is beaten to near death by the Inspector-General of Police, and his residence forcibly shifted from a comfortable bungalow in Damansara Heights, guarded by police officers, to cramped quarters in Sungei Buloh prison, guarded by prison officers. The leader decides where each leader is placed, and woe betide any who has ideas above his station. Even who succeeds him is carefully chosen.

Democracy in Malaysian political parties, indeed in Malaysia, is the unfettered right to elect the president or party in power for life. Electing the opposition is dangerous to one's health. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah found himself on the outside when he challenged Dr Mahathir for the UMNO presidency. Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek is on the outside when he acted to oust Dato' Seri Ling as MCA president. When BN was defeated in Kelantan and Trengganu and lost control of the state governments there, and especially UMNO found itself challenged by a enervated and rejuvenated PAS as to make its future doubtful, it was the people who are wrong. The BN-led government takes especial pains to insist the main Malay opposition party, Parti Sa-Islam Malaysia (PAS) is led by or supported by those who believe that Malaysia's multiracial polity must be led by bearded Islamic radicals of the 8th century. The sudden emergence of fundamentalist Islamic groups, who rose to prominence when BN is at its electoral weakest and confined in a straitjacket of its own making, nearly undid BN. But President Bush's war on terror saved it. So as the United States and Canada and other Western countries look upon Malaysia, in this hysteria to discover the perpetrators who challenged the United States' military, financial and political power, as an enemy, the Prime Minister is quick to blame that on its political opponents.

Malaysia is not the democracy it is made out to be. Democracy is not about regular elections -- flawed at the best of times in the best of conditions in the most democratic of countries -- but of how stridently the citizen can challenge the government once it takes office, and how it reacts to losses. In the West's standard for fair play, elections is the only criterion for a democracy. So, democracy is about to burst upon Afghanistan, the communist dictatorships under Russia's imperial yoke overnight have become secular democracies, Pakistan is not a democracy as Singapore and Malaysia are. But there are exceptions. It is right for President Musharraf to rig elections so he could be president on his terms, but not for Burma to have elections on its terms. Israel can flout UN security council resolutions with impunity, but let Iraq do it, and the world gathers to bomb it out of existence.

So, Malaysia is praised for its regular elections, the citizen knows what happens should he voice an opinion critical of the government. The ubiquitous Internal Security Act ensures it. It is used often capriciously to warn the citizen of the dangers of talking out of turn or espousing a view the government finds unnerving. Now the focus is on the Taliban clones in Malaysian politics, diverting the issue from Malaysia's own involvement with the Al-Qaeda network to internal groups wanting to overturn the government by force. The aim of the BN is to remain in power at whatever cost. Its commitment to democracy is so it can be in power on its own terms. What unsettles in Malaysia is that the opposition is better organised and prepared to challenge the BN on its terms. And the BN finds it unnerving.

That is the crisis in Malaysia today. The BN's insists it should remain in power by osmosis especially when leaders of its component parties are is under siege. So the citizen is deliberately warned off from voting for the Opposition. The targets you would notice are Parti Keadilan Nasional (Keadilan) and PAS. Recent arrests under the ISA were largely from these two parties. If these two parties can challenge BN, as it now cannot, the BN's days are numbered. The BN realises, too late, that leaders chosen by osmosis can go horribly out of touch and wrong, especially if the leader insists only his men should be elected.

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