MGG Pillai Commentary View

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No Honour Amongst Trade Unionists

THERE IS MORE HONOUR AMONGST thieves in Malaysia than politicians and trade unionists. The Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, resigns from his post, only to renege because the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) president, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, wanted him to stay on. Loyalty to the UMNO president is more important to him, and other leaders of the National Front (BN), than his commitment to his community and the political party which elected him president. Close on his heels comes the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) president, Senator Zainal Rampak, who in his desire to serve the people, reneges on an honour-bound agreement, in return for no contest, to resign 18 months into his three-year presidency in favour of his challenger. That averted a contest, he was returned unopposed to the post he acceded to in a similar confrontation with the then MTUC president, Mr P.P. Narayanan, in 1984. PP kept his word. Senator Zainal is returned unopposed until 2001, when he was challenged as he had PP.

Since free elctions is anathema to Malaysian leaders -- it does not matter if of a political party, trade union or social or sports club -- brook no opposition and demand to be returned unopposed, entering into arrangements as Senator Zainal to stave off defeat in 1984 and 2001, are common. The National Union of Telecoms Employees (NUTE) president, Mr Mohamed Shafiee B.P. Mammal, challenged him in 2001 with the cards were stacked against Senator Zainal, who had promised in 1995 and 1998 he would step down at the end of the term. Senator Zainal, firmly in the BN camp after flirting with four opposition political parties, adopts BN principles of leadership to renege on written agreements to step down. The way he did it would make Dr Ling drool in envy. He had his backers in the MTUC call on him for the Hari Raya festivities, where they asked him to renege on his commitment to resign on 31 December. He seized on that to declare he would stay on. After all, he cannot disappoint his supporters, could he?

The comedy starts then. The MTUC now wants no part of the deal he entered into with Mr Mohamed Shafie, even if it helped work it out in 2001 to prevent an election. That is a private matter, it now says, not one endorsed by the governing body. If it was, why did they agree to it at the time? Why did it then ask PP to step down in 1985, in the same set of circumstances, when it would not now? But in the acres of newsprint on the matter, one important reason is left unsaid: that the BN wants Senator Zainal to carry on, come hell or high water, for having got control of the MTUC under him, they do not want to see it whither away to hostile groups, as happened in the recent students council elections of Malaysian public universities. When Dr Mahathir smugly replied to questions about this, he smugly replied: "I do not have any view ... but as far as I am concerned, when I say I am going to step down in October, you can take my word for it. What other people is not my business." If this had happened in an opposition party of when Senator Zainal as MTUC was not firmly in the BN camp, his response would have been different.

This BN-induced general lassitude on Malaysia now threatens to destroy it. Every institution of any relevance in Malaysia is devalued to a degree unimagineable only two decades ago. To bring it back to what it was is as tedious as to let it slide into irrelevance and oblivion. The MTUC likewise has given up the ghost, and rush headlong into irrelevance and disaster. Elections are held so leaders can be freely elected. In Malaysia, it is so the leaders can be returned unopposed. Leaders go to any length to ensure they would not have to be tested. Hardly a party leader in BN or, for that matter, the opposition, is challenged, or elected in a free election. Several have been in office for 20 years and more. The DAP's Lim Kit Siang has been in office since 1969. A decade behind is the Malaysian Indian Congress's Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu. The other political leaders come after them. But all had been elected unopposed. It is not a good advertisement for democracy in Malaysian electable institutions.

When dissent is discouraged, an alternate view harshly pushed away, with leaders unwilling to stand up and be counted, the level of debate and argument descends into the gutter. As now. No one has a point of view, except to praise the government to the skies. Even if one has, one self-consciously looks over one's shoulders to see if Big Brother is listening in, and then repeat the most inanane comment as if it was the secret to the Holy Grail. We have become a nation of sheep. When we, as a people, show some independence and speak our minds, the authorities step in quickly to put short shrift to that. How do they do this? We had an example just this month. The police arrested ten Malaysians, all unnamed, under the Internal Security Act for passing on messages through their mobile phones of intending racial strife. That is enought to instill terror amongst citizens. Those who email a lot know how easy it is to send on messages one does not really believe in. I do that all the time. But I am now told that I can be detained under the Internal Security Act if what I sent upsets the guardians of the law in Malaysia. The detentions have intimidated a lot of people, and would bring them back to their normal stupor of rising in high dudgeon when their regular soporific drug of the TV serial is shown out of turn.

Senator Zainal, who should have challenged this trend, succumbs to it. I can see a worsening of ties between the government and MTUC after he leaves, for those who come after him, until they have been tamed, would cause the government sleepless nights. A government out of touch with those who elected them into power, as the BN undoubtedly is, shivers whenever some institution somewhere shows some independence. The sheer terror within BN when the MCA raised its banner of revolt in Penang, even if it was to score points, is not without foundation. Unaccustomed to opposition in every sphere of government activity, it reacts in terror when it comes from an unaccustomed source. But does he care? He joins the list of discredited politicians and trade unionists who have deviated from their calling to gain sheer wealth and power with no thought to why they could. The perks of office is what makes them cling to office. But did Senator Zainal have to dishonour his father by metaphorically replacing the first vowel of his name, Rampak, with an 'o'?

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