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The run-up to the party elections grouts UMNO in quicksand

THE UMNO WAY IS CLEAR: the leader is the state, so he should be unopposed as party president; the deputy leader would soon be, so he should as well. In times past, UMNO was the state, its president the prime minister. Today, UMNO is a sideshow, to be shaped at will by the leader who is there by virtue of being the state. The cock-eyed philosophy was forced upon UMNO the political party after UMNO the mass movement was declared illegal by the high court in 1988. An event as momentous was not challenged on appeal. But that is understandable: the then UMNO president, Dato' Seri (as he then was) Mahathir Mohamed, did not want his challengers, notably Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, in UMNO for it was clear even then that in a future party election, he would lose.

So UMNO Baru was formed. Tengku Razaleigh and his men sidelined into an opposition party named Semangat '46. He later joined UMNO Baru (since renamed UMNO) but excluded from the party's higher councils except on sufferance. He is hated by UMNO top leaders for daring to challenge the president, but they stand in awe of him. He kept his counsel, watching the drama unfold from his mansion in Jalan Langgak Golf, unseen and unheard but nevertheless a fearsome presence. UMNO members, especially out of Kuala Lumpur, saw in him the conscience of UMNO; those in Kuala Lumpur as a spoiler unhappy at how UMNO has descended into the handmaiden of its president.

Rules were adopted to inhibit challenge. It was made all but impossible for a challenger. The status quo must prevail. So a challenger if he makes to the election has more than an even chance of unseating the president. To protect the electoral inviolability of the president, similar hurdles are prescribed for all posts in the supreme council, but those are afterthoughts. The only post that mattered was the presidency, which must be kept warm for the prime minister. In one sense, it was so Tengku Razaleigh would never ever challenge the UMNO president.

When a party revises its electoral rules so one man should not attempt to be president, it is a sign of its eventual weakness. In UMNO, the horror that struck the leaders when Tengku Razaleigh announced his candidacy was preceded by suggestions he ought to be vice-president, not president; even that he ought to stand for deputy president than president. The immediate reaction was one of shock and fear. The UMNO machinery was brought to attack him, breaching its own rules about campaigning. Every day the mainstream newspapers, especially the New Straits Times, give creative reasons why he should be rejected. Four days into the nomination, with another ten days to come, the newspapers report with glee that he has yet to gain a nomination.

The electoral code of ethics is breached time and again, but the UMNO leaders presume it does not apply when the challenger is excoriated. In traditional Malay politics, the leader is never challenged; when he faces challenge, he drops out if he would lose or a challenge would split the society, so the challenger is the new leader. But this was turned on its head in 1987, when the then UMNO president, Dr Mahathir, declared he is UMNO president if he won by one vote. To make sure he would be unchallenged, he brought in bonus votes, giving a candidate a bonus ten votes for every nomination he gets. The more nomination he gets, the less the chance of an election. He changed it when his then deputy, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, made use of it to force out the deputy prime minister, Tun Ghafar Baba.

So, a new system was put into effect: the candidate for president must obtain 30 per cent of nominations from the divisions. That is now tested. Pak Lah presumed he would not be challenged, but when he was, he panicked. He pulled no stops to show how frightened he was to demand the supreme council decision that there be no contest for the two posts be in effect. When Tengku Razaleigh showed up, Pak Lah threatened to pull out if his challenger got 60 nominations, two more than he needs to stay in the race. There is a relentless barrage of attacks on the Tengku for his temerity to stand for the vacant post of UMNO president. That you understand is reserved. He must be destroyed for wanting it.

UMNO leaders now say a contest will split the party asunder. But the essence of politics is conflict, which is resolved by a contest. When you bottle dissent, or forbid those who want to be active in politics, you create a large underclass of dissent. It is this underclass that swung to Tengku Razaleigh that makes the UMNO leaders so nervous. They know that if he gets the minimum to be in the race, he is home free. All this undemocratic charade is to prevent it.

But not for the other posts. The UMNO vice-president, Tan Sri Muhammad Taib, is all for a free-for-all for the three vice-presidential posts. The more the merrier, he insists. All nominated should be allowed to contest, he says. "I suggest that UMNO divisions give them all the chance to contest ... if there are ten of them, we give ten the chance," he told reporters. What about Tengku Razaleigh going for the presidency? He should not. It would split the party. Is this not undemocratic? Party unity is more important. Like a true UMNO leader, he speaks with forked tongue: If the presidency is challenged, it would split the party; if the other positions are challenged, it is proof that democracy prevails in the party!

An honest open challenge would not split any organisation. It would only strengthen it. But when the likes of Tan Sri Muhammad talks of splits after a contest, he means that the leaders may fall. That should be prevented at all cost. So, why does he want the vice presidency to be challenged? Because he can't stop it. It therefore gives him a chance to show how democratic he can be. And with it the needed votes to be elected.

What annoys UMNO members, including several in the Pak Lah camp, is that this rule is extended to the wanita and youth wings. The youth leader, Dato' Hishamuddin Hussein, is unchallenged. But the supreme council's insistence that Pak Lah's son-in-law, Mr Khairy Jamaluddin, should be deputy youth chief upsets many. He has no record to speak of in UMNO youth or in Malaysia, who returned to Malaysia after decades overseas, not unusual as the son of a Malaysian diplomat, but enters this race as the son-in-law of the prime minister. He is where he is for whom he married. Similarly, the puteri elections, which the leaders wanted a shoo-in is challenged.

It is now clear that if UMNO is to survive as Malaysia's premier political party, a major overhaul is inevitable. The Tengku Razaleigh challenge has put this in sharp focus. Whether he makes it or not is irrelevant. But the fear he generates is proof enough that the UMNO leaders grout their strength in quicksand.

[This is my column in Harakah in its issue of 1-15 August 2004, and out today, 13 July 2004]

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