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The Ex-Commandos: A national asset, political gangsters or guns for hire?

THE KELAB BEKAS KOMANDO MALAYSIA, THE national organisation of retired army commandos, have been involved for more than two decades in the more unsavoury actions of Malaysian politics. They deploy their strong arm methods behind the political scenes. In 1987, for instance, it prevented the front runner in the UMNO presidential elections, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, from winning. In the years since, it has become a political force to which neither prime minister nor deputy prime minister nor UMNO presidential aspirant dare defy. All agree they can run riot against them, as commandos often do when they are let loose on the town after weeks or months in the deepest jungle. It is this reality which makes the UMNO politician only too happy to curry favour with it. Their patron is Tan Sri Megat Junid, the former minister and himself no mean master in political skullduggery: his role in the political and physical destruction of Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim is too well known to be repeated.

When this club holds its annual dinners, leading UMNO lights rush to grace their presence. It is, believe it or not, an important group in the UMNO political process, holds no loyalty to any UMNO leader - in fact its loyalties, by and large, are to an ex-UMNO politician whose political influence rise with every day he spends in Sungei Buloh jail. In the 1987 UMNO presidential contest, it was Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim who swung this club to swing to ensure Dr Mahathir's victory. His instructions then were clear: Dr Mahathir to be returned at whatever cost. As he was. When UMNO youth targeted Opposition, especial Parti KeADILan Nasional (KeADILan) workers in the Indera Kayanagan state assembly byelection in Perlis, and the Kedah parliamentary byelection in Pendang and the state assembly poll in Anak Bukit, it was this commando group which provided them protection.

Dato' Seri Anwar's fall clearly did not dent that link. Although UMNO leaders rushed in to fill the breach. This is most noticeable at its annual dinners. Last year's dinner in Port Dickson was preceded by careful talks so nothing would happen to upset Dr Mahathir with a churlish display of defiance on behalf of his political enemy, and this given, he arrived, with other UMNO leaders. The ex-commandos were at their best behaviour until at the end when they all got up and shouted in unison: Allahu Akhbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! (God is Great!). This year, it was held on 03 June 2003 at the MINT Hotel, along the national highway south from Kuala Lumpur. The prime minister could not attend for he had to be in Evian as an extra at the G-8 summit, and designed his deputy prime minister, Pak Lah, and the defence minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, to attend. Pak Lah could not either, and nominated Dato' Seri Najib as his representative.

These dinners are to mingle with national, more accurately UMNO, leaders. There was the usual speech of such highmindedness that one present could not understand if the speakers knew what they talked about, or indeed how much what they said differed from what they did in practice. Then it was the turn of Dato' Seri Najib. He spoke of the need to expand this club of pro-Anwar ex-Gerak Khas (Special Forces) commandos to include the air force and navy variants, Paskal and Handau, and the police special forces. He did not say it was an ingenious attempt to turn this club into unquestioned lapdog of UMNO leaders. Could it work? The legendary infighting within these groups, and the lengths to which they are deliberately kept apart, is one regular headaches of the military police even today. Could they coexist into this club and keep the peace? Even if the only fighting they do these days is with their grandchildren? More important, could they change the political focus of the club, or would they pose an even greater threat to UMNO leaders?

This dinner also proved the truism that if you give an UMNO leader aspiring to higher officer a platform, he would paint himself into a corner. Dato' Seri Najib talked warmly of Dr Mahathir, but nary a word about Pak Lah. That man did not exist that night. And he was there also as Pak Lah's representative. That proved, if nothing else, the fight for the UMNO presidency is about to turn messay. Dato' Najib is under strain in Pahang, where he can expect to be challenged. It is the considered view of the Pak Lah camp that he should be defeated. That with the unexpectedly tough Opposition campaign against him, and the fallout from the Bukit Tinggi casino, he is in for the toughest fight of his political career. If he scrapes through, he must, against Pak Lah's own instincts, be appointed his deputy prime minister. Or fade into the political black hole.

What should concern us is the unsavoury role that organisations like the ex-commando club have on national politics. UMNO had nurtured many groups like this. In the 1969 general elections, an organised group of UMNO political thugs created mayhem amongst the Opposition parties by physically mandhandling its candidates or sabotaging their programmes and vehicles. I remember the PRM leader, Dr Syed Husin Ali, telling a press conference then of how his car was punctured by a platform of nails dug into the road in an out of the way area of Pahang. There were many such instances. These groups have been around, along with government-sponsored bodies whose express purpose is to ensure BN and UMNO victory.

These groups have become a law unto themselves, as individual UMNO leaders took command of them for their own political enhancement. Most give up after they have achieved what they want, but others, like Dato' Seri Anwar, have nurtured them to the point that UMNO leaders are unsure of where they stand in a crisis when their future is at stake. This happens when these goon squads are formed for short-term gains. In UMNO, anyone with a long-term view of his and the party's future can easily take control of them. As Dato' Seri Anwar did with the ex-commandos. He gave them a long term view, and got loyalty in return. No amount of piece-meal fixes - to coincide with the dinner, 30 low cost houses were allotted to the ex-commandos, perhaps one percent of what is required to alleviate their housing woes - would make them change their loyalties. There is, to put it bluntly, no one amongst UMNO leaders with that long-term view. In the meantime, a monster is created which could swallow them.

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