MGG Pillai Commentary View

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BN veterans wants to stay on even if it makes BN weaker and the Opposition stronger

THE PRIME MINISTER FOR FIVE MORE days, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, has one rule for him and another for the others. He now wants all veterans in office, parliament and state assemblies to call it a day with him. Those who stay on too long can overstay their welcome. This can shake the National Front (BN)'s hold to power. This annoyed his successor, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who asked him why. Dr Mahathir blithely told him he only echoed what his son, Mr Kamaluddin Abdullah, and his hangers-on had decided at their usual weekly meeting at a horse-riding centre outside Kuala Lumpur. Yet, a month earlier, Dr Mahathir decided his cabinet should not resign with him. It was, he thundered, for Pak Lah to decide who ought to stay. However one looked at it, either option is a poison pill meant to hobble his successor. Mr Kamaluddin, who would not use the family name of Badawi for reasons of his own, however told his father that his group did want the veterans out of their hair.

Bodies and groups renew themselves by regularly renewing their members, with the older members making way for the new. The more often this is done, the more likely the body or group is relevant. This was how UMNO renewed itself in the past, the regular elections and challenges defined its role, and kept the Opposition at bay. But since the Malay political and civil service coup after the 1969 racial riots, power in UMNO was kept within a cabal led by its president, no less. Tun Abdul Razak and Tun Hussein Onn, the first two presidents after the coup held office for a total of ten years. The third, Dr Mahathir led it for 22 years. He brooked no opposition and to keep himself in power, he was prepared to destroy UMNO. He did that in 1988, when he allowed the courts to declare UMNO an illegal body if only so he could exclude his principal rival for the UMNO presidency - Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, along with his political enemies in he party - in his new UMNO.

In this new setup, Dr Mahathir brooked no interference or challenge. He swiftly removed any he considered a threat. He ruled autocratically, but he stumbled when he defied Malay cultural mores to humiliate his deputy president and deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and had him jailed. The Malay ground shifted away from UMNO. This made him even more autocratic. The party veterans together shut out all new blood. The party veterans would not let new blood in. This became the norm in all the BN parties. The BN's political difficulties came from this decision of the party leaders to hold on to power at any cost.

The Mahathir statement was enough to have BN leaders to echo the need for change and renewal. The BN secretary-general, Tan Sri Mohamed Rahmat, told the Utusan Malaysia that BN lost constituencies and states in elections when party veterans stayed on even when defeat was inevitable. PAS defeated BN in Kelantan in every election since 1990 because the veterans did not see the writing on the wall. In 1999, the BN mentri besar of Trengganu, Tan Sri Wan Mokhtar Wan Ahmad, in office since 1974, did not realise the resentment against his person, and that allowed PAS to defeat BN after 38 years in office. But the lesson is not learnt. In the Pendang and Anak Bukit byelections in Kedah, the veterans would not give way. That one was returned in Pendang is not proof of BN's strength, but a quirk in the process.

Tan Sri Mohamed believes that those who had completed three terms in parliament and state assemblies must way way for new blood. But when it was Tan Sri Mohamed's turn in the early 1980s to heed his words, he fought tooth and nail to ignore it. He was first elected in 1969, entered the government immediately, and rose steadily to cabinet minister in the 1970s, He fell foul of Dr Mahathir when the latter became prime minister in 1981. So shortly after the 1982 general elections, he was dropped from the cabinet and appointed the Malaysian ambassador to Indonesia. He would return often from Jakarta, hold court at his Chinese father-in-law's Hotel Equatorial in Kuala Lumpur, spewing his venom of Dr Mahathir to all who would listen. [It was incidentally at his table that I learnt how Dr Mahathir primed Dato' Seri Anwar's maternal uncle and an UMNO veteran, Dato' Sulaiman Palestine, to challenge the then Prime Minister, Dato' Seri (as he then was) Hussein Onn for the UMNO presidency.]

But he had a new lease of political life in the new UMNO Dr Mahathir created. He returned to the cabinet, became UMNO secretary-general, and stayed on as an irrelevant adjunct of an elaborate shadow play. His instant hatred for Dato' Seri Anwar made him indispensible, and stayed on until he overstayed his welcome. But when he stepped down in 1999, he had been in office for three decades. He has a sinecure as the BN secretary-general. His comment is hollow. He says these words for only one reason: he has transformed himself, for survival as a Prime Ministerial cheer leader, He is not alone. The law minister, Dato' Seri Rais Yatim, is another who returned to centre stage by changing his spots. While out of office - he backed Tengku Razaleigh, joined his Semangat '46, an UMNO clone, became its deputy president - he wrote a well-received doctoral dissertion or the arbitrariness of executive power. Once in office, he sets out deliberately to denigrate every point in his thesis. It does not matter to him if his reputation is destroyed. It is all the more important he clings to office. And now plans for a glorious future under Pak Lah.

The BN oldtimers who must step down show no intent. The MIC leader, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, is in office and cabinet since 1979, but he believes he is good for another 30 years. The Gerakan president, Dato' Seri Ling Kheng Yaik, in office from that year, insists the party needs him and would cling on to power until he decides to leave. The former MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, clung to office even after his sell-by date because Dr Mahathir wanted him to stay on. But he was driven out nevertheless by a communal campaign that all but split the MCA. The family dynasty in Sarawak, the paterfamilias being now the chief minister, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, has all but destroyed the BN in Sarawak, but he shows not sign of stepping down. Kuala Lumpur is fed up, but can do little. His cabinet colleagues threaten to boycott him, but they do not have the guts to do that. The perks of office are too varied to give up so easily.

But when the oldtimers cling to office in an geriatric coalition, the youngsters would give up the ghost and seek their political futures elsewhere. The BN loses ground in more ways than one. That many young professionals and others join PAS and the Opposition parties, particularly the National Justice Party {KeADILan), now strengthened with its merger with the Malaysian People's Party (PRM), and this gives the BN leaders sleepless nights. More frightening though is the utter lack of direction in BN. UMNO is leaderless, and this is reflected in every BN party. All this comes to a head as Dr Mahathirf prepares to leave office. Pak Lah is on shaky ground for he faces opposition from a variety of sources. Dr Mahathir insists on staying on until the last possible minute, and Pak Lah is seen as indecisive, beholden to his predecessor, is unsure of himself. And that is not one that can be repaired when he is Prime Minister. The oldtimers would see to that.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com