MGG Pillai Commentary View

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So who is the mystery man who put the BN and Pak Lah into endless election trouble?

THE PRIME MINISTER, AND acting UMNO and National Front (BN) president, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, denies the BN ordered RM100 million and more - it could be as high as RM1.8 billion - of posters, buntings, badges and other election paraphernalia for the 21 March 2004 general election. He should then have called in the the police and the anti-corruption agency to find out who put BN in a bad light. But ever the conciliator, he advises those unpaid to resolve it with those who ordered it.

In other words, the BN is not involved but since this scam helped its election machinery, how could they be sent to jail? It was, you would recall, how he reacted when some unknown people hijacked the BN logo on to a full page advertisement, during the general elections, in the Chinese press to ask voters to vote for the BN. He denied it, and did nothing.

Could it happen without his knowledge? No. Could he admit he knew or allowed it? No. He can only deny it for all he is worth. If he admits it, it becomes another breach of the Anwar Ibrahim principle of jail and damnation for corruption if power is abused for personal ends or benefit. If he does not, it does too, for it appeared under his watch. The BN under his leadership used its dominant hold of government to election material and not pay for it.

Every government in office, especially when it is not subject to checks and balance from within and in parliament, breaks law and regulations with impunity. When it controls all levers of power, the more so. In the past, it was with perfect legitimacy, the legal niceties neatly taken care of that none is the wiser.

But long years in office with no opposition leads to arrogance and the belief that the opposition and the voter is stupid, that longevity gives it brilliance and immortality. The BN call put it off when it has a dominant leader, like three of our five prime minsiters were, but the mask slips with a weak leader.

However one looks at it, we have the weakest leader ever, with a nepotic coterie and of general advisers more interested in their own future and bank balances than of the government or its leader. If they had cast a practiced eye over events and policies, they could have prevented the mistakes the government struggles to correct.

Let us look at the election paraphernalia scandal. Orders were placed shortly after Pak Lah took office in November last year. It was then decided to hold general elections soon so could move away swiftly from the suffocating shadow of the former prime minsiter, Tun Mahathir Mohamed. The election paraphernalia were printed well before the general elections so that it alone among the political parties were ready for the seven-and-a-half day campaign period.

It is impossible for political parties to print them in the time between dissolution and elections. The opposition parties, besides, face such setbacks as printers refusing to accept their orders for fear of being on the government blacklist. There may not be one, but all believe there is. In business, discretion is of course the better part of valour.

The BN printed all its election material in China and elsewhere. If it had printed them locally, and the opposition overseas, it would be enough to damn them for foreign links. When the BN does it, it is for costs. It does not tell you more. It does not traditionally pay its suppliers, or pay them late. Rather than have too many creditors, it is easier to farm it off to one individual, who could then be sacrificed when payment time is due. What happened in 2004 is no different to what happened in elections past. The difference is that creditors are quick to scream for payment.

I have covered every general election since the second, in 1964, and have known of this default in every election since. But business was good, the perks handsome, printers few that they rushed to print the posters. But conditions and attitudes changed, in BN and amongst its suppliers. Today, the BN does not even pretend it would meet its bills, and the bill collectors are not averse to making their plight public.

When the contract is awarded, it is passed on through several intermediaries, the cost of what is required declining with each referral until the one who provides it. He has to work at tight margins. If he is not paid, he cannot repay his loans, and it is often bankruptcy or forced sale of his business. It happens to small contractors who complete their government projects that when they are paid years later their profits are wiped out in interest costs to the banks. Often they have lost their businesses as well.

But this is the first time that one company has overall charge of it for a BN election. He is not paid, he cannot pay others down the line, now talks starkly of retaliation should he be jailed or made a bankrupt. The BN and Pak Lah is caught out because this has become public. They believe it can be sidelined by making no further reference to it.

It is proof yet the BN calls for general election when it is ready, and throws the Opposition parties into dissarray when it is announced. Impediments galore are put on them so they could not challenge the BN with any chance of being in power. What each candidate can spend is limited by law. But it is now accepted that of the election material at his command, he pays only for any poster or flyers that contain his name and photograph. All others come from party headquarters and therefore not counted towards it.

The Election Commission is pressed into service so the BN is returned handsomely. When opposition candidates file election petitions all impediments are put before them. But It did not help. The BN and UMNO under Pak Lah is at its weakest ever. The elections hobbled him. He now faces a challenge to be UMNO president which, if his challenger can obtain the minimum 58 nominations, could see him fighting for his political life. The last thing he wanted is a scandal like this.

First things first. Who could have ordered the election material? Pak Lah did not. Nor the BN or UMNO. Some one must have. It must be someone who wants to drag Pak Lah's and UMNO's name in the mud. He must want to destroy UMNO and its leaders. It looks like a devious plot to that aim. It cannot be Pak Lah's challenger for the UMNO presidency: he is beyond stooping to this low level and would rather fight fair. So who could it be?

Who could have the reach and the gumption to make sure Pak Lah is blamed. To save his skin, Pak Lah has to deny he is involved. I know one who could fit the bill admirably buy is however otherwise occupied. He lives in pain in a prison cell in Sungei Buloh, confined to a wheel chair. He is, in the considered view of Pak Lah and the government he leads, a repobrate, a no-hoper, a has-been, untrustworthy, capable of putting the country into disrepute by wanting to destroy its leaders. Just the sort of man, I would think, who could place orders such as this to put the BN and Pak Lah into disrepute.

There is only one problem: he is kept in high security conditions, he unable to move on his own and confined to a wheel chair, with no access to the outside world except through his family and lawyers, that he could not do it even if he wanted to. So who did it? I am sure the man is known to Pak Lah and top BN and UMNO brass. Which is why he would get away scot free. And those who looked at the BN gift horse in the mouth must pay for it.

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