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Should Anwar Ibrahim's dato'ships be stripped off him?

Two leading Malaysian journalists, Dato' A. Kadir Jasin and Dato' Wong Chun Wai, honoured for service to politics than to journalism, are so incensed that titles are abused that they want those who are jailed to be stripped off them. As they do not want Malaysians awarded dato'ships of a bygone age by non-existent monarchs to be on par with the buyable Malaysian awards. Malaysian awards, they contend, must be given the respect its holders demand. The new Sultan of Selangor is so incensed at this practice of buying awards that he stripped two men of their titles and limited the award of datoships to 40. He had reason to be annoyed. In the latter years of his father's reign, the practice was so badly misused that it was an open secret what it would cost one to be ennobled. There was even an award called Tan Sri Diraja, which any one could have if he had a spare RM500,000 or so. Three were awarded, but it did not have the cache of a federal Tan Sri, and suddenly there were no takers. Nobody talks of it now.

Since many unworthy and underserving characters would happily buy their way into influence and prestige, and BN politicians willing to use their influence, with the right amount of money, to ensure it, dato'ships and other titles of ennoblement could be bought. It is a mark of "prestige" and "influence" for third rate business men to have as many dato'ships as there are states in the Malaysian federation. They could not have got them for their good works or service to the state. In the last two decades, when there were not enough dato'ships to go around, many states set up new orders in the name of the rulers. The adage that if one throws a stone into the air, it would hit a dozen dato's if it hits one man is only too true. At the centre, the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, had a new order of dato's, PJN, which is awarded in large numbers annually for mostly political service. Each member in the National Front (BN) has an informal quota of dato'ships and other awards they can nominate, and several, not to put a fine point to it, sell them to the highest bidder. Sometimes this makes the news. A PPP official accused its president, Dato' M. Kayveas, of having taken a bribe for an award he never received. The affair died down when he joined the government.

But states also awards dato'ship on the principle of "ambu bodek", to curry favour, by the state political leadership recommending federal leaders and their wives for high awards. So, the deputy prime minister wife, Datin Seri Endon Mohamed, is awarded titles from three states in succession after her return from cancer treatment in the United States. As Datin Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, was before her. This is nothing new. It is common practice for all states to award the wives of the prime minister and deputy prime minister. What have they done to deserve the honours? None. But it is infra dig for a state BN chief minister to not award one to the wives of the UMNO president and deputy president. When attention is focussed on it, something is wrong. Such awards are in bad taste, and on par with buying titles.

Then there is the multi-dato'ed business man who use influence and cash so their acolytes and lawyers could be suitably rewarded. So that international business man of unquestioned repute got his lawyer who described him thus a datoship from Trengganu and the lawyer's brother a datoship from Selangor. The Prime Minister wanted one of his cronies, A Tan Sri who is a can-do-no-dam specialist, be made a dato' paduka, and insisted of one state to give it to him. When two prominent Malaysians were recommended by one Yang Dipertuan Agung for Tan Sris, some one in the Prime Minister's private office struck them out, and substituted his name on one and a Chinese business man on another. It was too late to change it, and the Yang Dipertuan Agung had to apologise to the two men. But nothing happened to the man who hijacked the awards.

The Sultan of Selangor therefore has reason to decide enough is enough. And restricts it to 40. But it was the Sultan of Johore, in the 1980s, who put a stop to it so effectively that Johore politicians and business men who feel naked without a title has to get them from other states. He winced, as the Sultan of Selangor, when he succeeded his father at how rotten the award of titles had become. He pared them down so drastically that from 101 datoships in the fading years of his father's reign he now awards a handful every year. Last year, there were none, this year one. The Johore dato'ship is respected as it once was. In Kelantan and Trengganu, the sultan has taken over his regal right to award titles as he deems fit. In Kedah, the Sultan apologised to one for not awarding him the dato'ship he was recommended because he was under 45. He got it the following year when he came of age. In some states -- Pahang, Perak and Negri Sembilian, in particular -- no such control exists. Several men in their twenties have had two or three titles conferred on them. One, Dato' Soh Chee Wen, is on trial for a string of offences which could sink the MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik.

About 650 are awarded titles by the 13 states and the centre every year. Since many are of these are the recommendations of the BN parties, and some, let us not forget, by the rulers themselves to assuage their financial problems, this proliferation of titles would continue. To the politicians, it is an agreeable source of easy money for themselves and, if they are honest, to the parties they represent. There are anecdotal stories of these politicians sharing the loot with the rulers and governors. When BN and UMNO are happy to allow these awards to proliferate, business men happy to pay to be ennobled, and with elections in the air, the money comes in useful, the practice cannot be wiped out, unless the sultans decide, as some has, enough is enough, and bring it to what it must be: an award for service to the community and state. The Sultan of Johore does not entertain any political list, and gazes at the mentri besar's list to the same critical eye he casts on his own. So, it is a handful every year. He wants the individual honoured by the award, not the award demeaned by the individual. In the time of his grandfather, the dato's were honoured and respected for their achievements, unlike those dato's ennobled by his son.

So, Dato' Kadir and Dato' Wong has the right idea. Those who fall foul of the law should not be allowed to benefit from their titles. We should begin with the most prominent in jail: Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the former deputy prime minister, who has datoships from almost all states. He is a convict, and by this premise, is unfit to be a dato. He should be stripped off them. And bring honour back to the awards diminished by allegations of having to buy them. He is, in the eyes of all right thinking people in the BN who believe that anyone who challenges its leader deserves to rot in jail, rightly convicted, even if by hook or by crook, and denied of all basic courtesies and respect. But the BN or UMNO could not take that fatal step. For whatever you might say of what he did or did not do, he is still the icon many Malays and Malaysians believe in or prefer.

This dato' seri in jail is more respected and honoured than the Dato' Seri and the dato's seri in the cabinet, and even the two UMNO Tuns -- Ghafar Baba and Daim Zainuddin. So, while the government finds creative ways to make Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim's life as difficult as it can, his health and posture declines in inverse proportion to his rising stature. He has made numerous mistakes, and he pays the price for that failure. But he is damned for no reason than the Prime Minister wants it. It was so ineptly done that Dato' Seri Anwar forced Dr Mahathir on the defensive. And he knows that in time he would be pardoned, not by his asking, but as more enlightened people come into office who feels the Malay ground is shaken so long as the cultural hurt on him remains. So, if there is a serious intention to correct this yawning gap between a dato and respect, there is no choice but do it. But could Dato' Seri Mahathir. And would the rulers agree that he is fairly convicted and therefore should be stripped of titles their states awarded him?

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