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The cabinet reshuffle: Teaching buffalos ballroom dancing

IF THE PRIME MINISTER, DATO' SERI MAHATHIR Mohamed's last cabinet reshuffle, was to show how united the National Front (BN) is, it is a failure. He plays games, which he should not, about his plans. If his aim is unity and a stolid team, those he appointed are quick to deny it. This reshuffle is to rearrange the deck after the MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, was forced out. But before he left, with Dr Mahathir's kindly help, he put in force a team to continue the earth-shattering split in the MCA. Nothing, in other words, has changed.

The MCA had decided, with no relevance to past practice or constitutional justification that Transport is the most senior of MCA cabinet posts, and earmarked for the new MCA president, Dato' Seri Ong Ka Ting, should move there from local government and housing. He did not. Instead, the MCA deputy president, Dato' Chan Kong Choy, got it, so the rumour mongering goes, at the request of the prime minister-to-be, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Dato' Seri Ong's backers now insist it is all for the better: he can appoint 420 party hacks as new village development officers, which the government pays for, but can well be MCA 'eyes-and-ears' in the contentious Chinese new villages.

Dr Mahathir, with his ingrained contempt for constitutional niceties, said this reshuffle is because, as The Star reported, "the Government needed replacements for certain posts in several ministries". Indeed. Besides, the replacements does not yet have the concurrence of the Yang Dipertuan Agung. This is a reversal from past practice, when the announcements are made only after royal concent is got. Did he seek a constitutional crisis to leave Pak Lah with a poisoned chalice? Or did he conclude that since UMNO is divided - the more UMNO leaders insist UMNO is united, the more it is not - he did not care what happened after he retired in November?

As those involved, it was yet another round of gratefulness and thanks for the Prime Minister's confidence in them. They did not, of course, expect to be so honoured. But now that they have, they would not let the people down, and would consult the Prime Minister, who retires in four months, when they run into trouble after he leaves. The portfolios are new and they are green, but rest assured, they would not let down those who did not elect them. Why do new cabinet and government appointees look like schoolboys making promises at the first day of school? These fellows cannot contain themselves on their appointment, and cann rush home to tell mother about it. If this is the level of intelligence and political concern of the second largest political party in the BN, all is lost. Why could they not have come out with their plans in their portfolios. They knew of their appointments early enough that could have spoken in more seriousness than being grateful. But can you teach a buffalo ballroom dancing?

They forget that the aim of cabinet reshuffles are to place, often in Malaysia, square pegs in round holes. What nonsense does Dato' Seri Ong talk when he says the "PM (prime minister) has considered carefully and has offered the most suitable position for the MCA members". Could he explain why the only cabinet and government positions MCA MPs and senators can aspire to are those given the party as punishment in the fallout from 13 May 1969? Let us not forget, the headmaster has his say. The MIC president, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, no doubt peeved that no MIC member is affected, says magisterially: "I congratulate all the new appointees and trust that the Prime Minister has taken into consideration before coming to this decision. I urge them to carry out their duties with the fullest dedication and responsibility." Phew!!!

But this reshuffle only heightens the split within the MCA. The MCA president could not have put it better. When he should have been more magnanimous, he cannot, like Dr Mahathir over Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, but look over his shoulder. Indeed, the more he talks of there being no divisions within MCA, the more there is. "There are no more factions," he thunders, "in MCA. The appointments are based on the most suitable candidate and not whom he supported when there were two factions in the party." He believes the "present well-balanced team" will unite the party and it is a forward-looking team." One hopes he is not up to his usual one-upmanship, that he compares his "well-balanced team" to UMNO's not-so-well-balanced team. He lives in a fool's paradise. He believes the people will accept any grateful rubbish he and his ilk spouts. He cannot understand why the people do not welcome his words, as President Bush could not in Basra, with garlands and rush to strengthen the MCA ranks.

In one sense, this cabinet reshuffle is proof of crisis to come. Dato' Chan is nominally in MCA's Team B, although now that he has got the cabinet post he should have got after 1999, he believes he should not be part of any divisive faction, and the only role for him is as a national conciliator subservient to the MCA president. Every other is from Team A, which in one sense is according to plan. Since there are no factions, as Dato' Seri Ong avers, what does it matter if all are from Team A. It is with such strange logic that BN justifies the unjustifiable. But if he continues to alienate those in Team B, MCA candidates in several key areas, especially in Pahang, could help BN to defeat against an already formidable challenge from the PAS-led opposition alliance.

Then there is one appointment both the MIC and PPP presidents are upset about: the appointment of Dato' M. Kayveas as deputy minister in the Prime Minister's department. The MIC president is unhappy the party is left out, the PPP president that he did not his minister in local government and housing. After all, he did, in his considered impassionate neutral view, brilliantly highlighted corruption in the Ampang Jaya municipal council. Why is he now swats flies in the Prime Minister's department. For one, in his publicity-seeking rush to contain corruption, he laid it at the feet of senior UMNO leaders. That is verboten, and inimial to his political health. Did he not know the natural progression for a BN politician who wants to swat corruption is to swat flies? Or if he is important enough, he gets to swat those flies in Sungei Buloh. That he is where he is shows both how lucky and how unimportant he is in the BN scheme of things. He should count himself lucky if he was transferred to Sungei Buloh after a sparring match, when blindfolded and manacled, by no less than the Inspector-General of Police. There is only one problem. He would be forgotten by the people at large, as he would soon be in his new position.

It is an open secret that the Prime Minister in November this year has no truck with the MCA or MIC or, Gerakan presidents. All have held office since about his election to parliement in 1878. Dato' Seri Samy Vellu took office that year, when his predecessor, Tan Sri V. Manickavasagam, died; Dato' Seri Lim Kheng Yaik the following year when he succeed the Gerakan president, Tun Lim Chong Eu. Dato' Seri Ong and his predecessor, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, refused Pak Lah's attempt - at Dr Mahathir's request - to mediate the MCA crisis, insisting they would only with Dr Mahathir; it was at that meeting that the new MCA president wanted the UMNO president-to-be that MCA could well walk out into the opposition if UMNO continues to treat the MCA as a poor distant cousin. No doubt Dato' Seri Ong has the same courage come November. At least he could show the Malay leaders that he would not allow them to mess up his community's interests. None of his predecessors have. So, why am I am not surprised at this tiger in our midst? Why do I have this sneaking feeling this soon-to-be paper tiger cannot wait to be soon an UMNO poodle or, more likely, an UMNO paper poodle?

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