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The National Front Confronts A Red Herring

The MCA President, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, who believes, like the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, the only way to run his party and portfolio is from distant capitals, returned home over the weekend to reaffirm how much he depends on UMNO's graciousness to survive. The deputy prime minister and UMNO deputy president demanded that two MCA state assembly men who abstained in the Penang state assembly be expelled for that. And ignored the nine state assembly men who stayed away. As he put it, the two had undermined the National Front's stability and self-respect, for which they ought to be expelled. The National Front (BN) whip did not order the BN state assembly men to vote for the motion. Nor the MCA. The bizarre reaction of others, including the MCA leaders, is as one expects: the BN leaders would not contradict the president and deputy president, however inimical it is to them and reality.

So, instead of challenging Dato' Seri Abdullah's premise, Dr Ling seeks a meeting with him over it. Even the MCA, by its actions, accepts the the pair is treacherous. All it wants is to give them a second chance. Its leaders rush in with mea culpa statements on their behalf. Dr Ling stepped out of the plane from his fortnight's holiday in China to say he awaits a report from the Penang MCA chief. The MCA leaders are prepared to sacrifice them. But why are we not told why what they did is treachery when nine, mostly UMNO, state assembly men did not even bother to vote? Their explanations, that they had stepped out of the chamber at the time of the vote of which they had no prior knowledge, is accepted at face value. Could they had left the chamber because they were unhappy with the Outer Ring Road project but did not want to be left naked as the two state assembly men, took the line of least resistance, and left the chamber before the vote? If the BN must investigate the duo, it must the nine who were absent from the chamber. But if it did, it would open a can of worms it cannot afford in Penang now. So the pair is targetted.

One understands why Dato' Seri Abdullah reacted as he did. The merciless spotlight on him and UMNO reveals flaws and setbacks, and his, and its, coming irrelevance, shows neither Dr Mahathir nor he in charge of the country and UMNO. The country runs on auto-pilot, so UMNO and the BN. Dato' Seri Abdullah focussed his irrelevant attention on the two state assembly men to divert attention from that but it backfired. No one dares express a contrary view. So even those who ought to know better, like the BN secretary-general, Tan Sri Mohamed Rahmat, accuses the pair of an ulterior motive for abstaining. But my old friend of more than half a century is in his third political dotage, desperate to remain where he is, only too happy to padlock his mind with electronic fences so it would not betray him and cause him to lose his position. The defence minister and UMNO vice president, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, and others in the UMNO and BN heirarchy, are too busy positioning themselves in the leadership vaccuum to come after Dr Mahathir, but frightened all the same of venturing a political opinion that would upset the Old Man. With people like them, does the BN and UMNO need enemies?

It is assumed the two are wrong, they should have kept their minds in safe deposit boxes once they are elected, and should never ever act as conscience dictates. When the country's, or indeed the BN's, security or well-being is at stake, then Dato' Seri Abdullah's front attack on the pair is justified. This requires the BN to shepherd its elected representatives, as PAS does, with clear statements of the national interest, and bring them into the discussion so they are clear from the start where they stand. But in the BN, this is assumed and transferred by an osmosis more imagined than real. It lately is the norm that anyone the Prime Minister and the deputy prime minister, in their various incarnations, attacks must accept it and not play, but be, dead. To challenge it is dangerous, not for the challengers but to those they challenge. There sits in a lonely cell in Sungei Buloh prison a man slowly wasting away in a wheelchair who did, and UMNO since is afraid of its, and his, shadow. No one in BN and UMNO wants more shadows like it. Besides, the fiercely independent BN partners will fight tooth and nail to compromise to cling to office long after their ground had deserted them. So, Dato' Seri Abdullah can get away with puerile and unconstitutional threats like this.

What it reveals is Dr Mahathir's iron control of UMNO, and the man who would be King after him unwilling to be his own man but as a loyal henchman even as he chafes at the edges. He has to make the case that Dr Mahathir is in charge, runs the government in his name, never taking the thunder from him, and repeat to whoever who would listen that Dr Mahathir, not he, is in charge, even when not. It shows Dr Mahathir's brilliant but futile attempt to insist he is the boss and brooks no interference, is lukewarm towards Dato' Seri Abdullah as his successor, as the world around him is aghast at the dysfunctional state Malaysia is as he prepares to leave the scene. Everything revolves around him. He decides what must be done. It is not without reason Dato' Seri Abdullah wanted the Penang state BN and the BN whip in the state assembly to address their reports not to him but to Dr Mahathir. Dr Mahathir, meanwhile, is in Paris for a conference on the reconstruction of Lebanon, pledges US$250 million at a token interest towards it, a sum neither the cabinet nor Parliament approved. The actions of Dr Mahathir and Dato' Seri Abdullah reflect an arrogance which in the end must sink them, and us, before long.

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