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The squabbling Indian leaders told to shut up, but would that address the issue?

THE PRIME MINISTER, DATO' SERI Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, had had enough, and told the two squabbling Indian leaders to shut up. It would not do for the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) president, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, and the Indian Progressive Front, Dato' M.G. Pandithan, to divide the Indian community with general election around the proverbial corner. Since It is an internal matter, Pak Lah would not intervene. (Actually it is, since it is two BN parties quarrelling, but let that pass.) This bickering must stop. And now. Both promptly did and claimed the high moral ground. "The MIC doesn't go to war with anybody except the Opposition during the elections," Dato' Seri Samy Vellu said. But he could not resist putting the oar in. Dato' Pandithan started this, the IPF continues with its insults and defamations, but MIC will emerge the stronger, can withstand "all this nonsense". The MIC president is used to having the last word. But the barbs hurt. Only MIC members, not Dato' Pandithan, could tell him to step down. He is wrong here. He would step down, but not because his members want him to.

Dato' Pandithan showed he is much in control in this tit-for-tat. He has no quarrel with the MIC president, but he represents 66,000 Maika Holdings shareholders and wants to know how the MIC-run company is in such a bad state. Most of them are poor, and want to know about their investment. It is not a fight with MIC or Dato' Seri Samy. But the investment company is now controlled by the MIC president and run by his son. The IPF president touched a raw nerve. The Anti-Corruption Agency has raided Maika Holdings since, seized documents and interviewed its key officials. The two men can stop bickering, but there is now an issue and probable wrongdoing. That must now be addressed. Pak Lah had no option but to tell the two to shut up. Dato' Seri Samy started it to allege Dato' Pandithan recommended a newspaper editor for a dato'ship when the man was an MIC member, and had therefore lied to the King. The editor said he was not, and had not received the award. Dato' Pandithan then accused Dato' Seri Samy of revealing an official secret.

Pak Lah had to step in. If this continued, it could in the end be linked to UMNO and the National Front (BN). It is in squabbles like these that Malaysians know how the system works. Every BN party leader can recommend their members or anyone they liked for federal and state awards. It is a power in their hands in a nationl besotted with titles. No self-respecting business man or politician have arrived unless he is made, at least, a dato. The BN leaders spread the net indiscriminately for datos' and other awards. The MCA president, Dato' Seri Ong Ka Ting, nominated two men who turned out to be gangsters: one was shot dead, the other resigned his award than have it taken away from him. For the Indian community, Dato' Seri Samy had used his veto on awards for the Indians so liberally when they were recommended by others that it is not one he can wield with impunity now. But the danger for Pak Lah with general election approaching is for this to become a scandal. So, he called for a stop to hostilities.

Would this save Dato' Seri Samy? The Maika Holdings scandal is not about to go away. He promises to give a full accounting. But can he? Could he explain how Maika Holdings lost tens of millions of ringgit in the Telekom shares scandal? Or how the piece of land owned by the MIC next to its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur is not its any more? And why the promised new headquarters building is not built? He says he can prove "to the public" that he did right in all his dealings. He should. If he has a cast iron case that he had no desire but the future and well being of the Indian community, he would be forgiven the odd lapse of memory or unaccountable investments. But he would not. He has utter contempt for the Indian community. He believes he can lead them by the nose, and they would listen to him and to no one else. He is right. The MIC members are but slaves to him. He has had the constitution rewritten so he has the power to expel anyone who challenges him. Dato' Pandithan, after all, was once an MIC president.

He made one fundamental mistake. He did not know when to retire. But then BN leaders do not know when to. The former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, would not until the last moment let go. The former MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, would not until he was forced to. As would the MIC president. And, let us not forget, the Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia president, Dato' Seri Lim Kheng Yaik. Sarawak could well plunge into a crisis if the chief minister, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, would not step down after two decades in office. So would Negri Sembilan, whose mentri besar, Tan Sri Isa Samad, has been in office for 22 years. Trengganu was lost to PAS when the UMNO mentri besar, Tan Sri Wan Mokhtar Wah Ahmad, insisted 24 years in office was not enough and he wanted another term. That decision would now be made for him. What would he do then? Retire to Perth with his ill-gotten gains, or stay back and face the music as the former Georgian president, Mr Eduoard Sheverdnadze, when he declined political asylum in Germany? Whatever he does, he is history.

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