MGG Pillai Commentary View

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The PPP nearly causes a crisis within the National Front

SMALLER PARTIES IN THE National Front (BN) are meant to be seen and not heard. Their sole role, especially if they do not have any seats in Parliament or the state assemblies, is to praise and pledge fealty to BN. Nothing more is expected of it. If they behave, their leaders would be given a title from one of the states, and be made to feel important. So, when one political party decides to rebuild itself into a larger party, and demands what it should not, then it is quashed. But the BN cannot do that now. There is too much at stake. It needs all the non-Malay support it can get, since the Malays are not as enamoured of it as it once wasBut that it happened is yet another sign that the old rules on how the BN orders itself should be reviewed, or it could lead to more political heartaches in the coming years. So when the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, planned his general election, he had first to allot the seats.

This is where the pressure came from an unexpected quarter: Dato' M. Kayveas of the People's Progressive Party. It caused a crisis more serious than the BN could imagine, and it required more than threats to keep him along the straight and narrow. Parliament is dissolved with all the state assemblies except the Council Negeri in Sarawak. How this is resolved is not clear, but a planned meeting between Pak Lah and Dato' Kayveas was postponed thrice, and if they met this morning (03 March 2004), and if he gets the parliamentary constituency he had worked hard for: the new parliamentary constituency of Cameron Highlands. Dato' Kayveas worked hard at it, built local alliances, and visited it regularly. But problems arose in the Pekan constituency of the BN selection committee chairman, the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak. He faced unexpected opposition from his newly enhanced loyalists in Pekan, the Opposition targetted two heavyweights to challenge him. He has a small difficulty with Pak Lah's followers who would rather he be not where he is.

He needed a safe constituency, and the committee decided upon Cameron Highlands. When this was made known at the BN supreme council, Dato' Kayveas, in fury, threatened to pull the PPP out of the BN. It was no idle boast. The PPP today is a pale shadow of the Perak Progressive Party of the Seenivasagam brothers; its decline speeded when it joined the BN in 1973; it was there for the numbers until Dato' Kayveas decided it had to be more than that. If he pulled out of the BN now, it would give it a jolt it could do without. It was then that the Perak mentri besar, Dato' Seri Tajol Rosli Ghazali, offered him Bukit Gantang, a 70-per cent Malay constituency in the Malay heartland, where only a fluke could return him. He rejected it. But not before UMNO Bukit Gantang took exception to him contensting. It put Dato' Seri Tajol in a spot. He demanded Dato' Kayveas not presume any seat in Perak is his before Pak Lah decides upon it. When reporters asked him, he said the "feelings of others" should be kept in mind when leaders make unwarranted announcements. But Dato' Kayveas did not ask for Bukit Gantang nor had he discussed with him about the PPP's allocations in Perak. Dato' Tajol Rosli is right here. It is he who offered the seat and without Dato' Kayveas asking for it.

That is not all. In Cameron Highlands, the Indian community leaders warned that if Dato' Kayveas is not the candidate, the Indians, 27 per cent of the voters, would boycott or spoil the ballot papers. All of a sudden, this safe seat, with the opposition expected to get no more than 21 per cent of the votes, became marginal if the Indians carried out the threat. This is not as far-fetched as it seems. In 1969, the MCA replaced a popular state assemblyman for Kuala Kubu Bahru in Selangor; more than 5,000 of his supporters spoilt their ballots, far more than the winner's tally. What is surprising is the Malaysian Indian Congress's absence here. It once had a state assemblymen here. But an aggressive Dato' Kayveas established his credentials there. It is not known if he would now get the constituency, but the resurgent PPP is one to watch. It is this that led the MIC president, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, to consider him as his possible successor. The other major Indian grouping, Dato' M.G. Pandithan's Indian Progressive Front, is lost in the wilderness. The IPF is not in the BN, with no chance it would so long as the MIC leader would not allow it. It is fair to assume he would not the PPP either, if it was not already in the BN.

Pak Lah had to dissolve Parliament and the state assembliers as soon as possible. The superficial loyalty and the still euphoric view of him as Prime Minister is still there, but that must, in time, erode. But if these internal squabbles get a wider airing, it could affect the BN's showing. Pak Lah cannot afford to have these strains surface. While general election is expected, the timing still caught many by surprise. Even UMNO officials were caught flatfooted. Now that elections are due, it be due soon after 21 March. This was the widely expected date, but this is when the first leg of the F-1 motor racing championship is in Malaysia. It is all but impossible to hold a general election on the same day. He needs to win with a large majority, not let another state fall into PAS hands, perhaps have Kelantan or Trengganu seized from PAS control for him to be safely returned unopposed at the UMNO general assembly as its president. As it looks now, he is assured of his two-thirds majority. But how he would fare in the states is unclear. If the Opposition, especially PAS, gains further ground in the states, especially in Kedah, Perlis, Pahang and Selangor, it would not be a good sign.

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