Civil war in Putra Jaya between the scholars and the Ninjas
2004-08-03
OPEN WARFARE HAS BROKEN out in the prime minister's office. The
arrogant, even supercillious, Oxbridge coterie ("scholars") around
the prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and led by his
son-in-law, Mr Khairy Jamaludin, had attempted to sideline the civil
service ("the Ninjas"). It worked awhile, but as the days went by,
his interference and his reach knew no bounds. He was appointed to a
high civil service appointment at a grade that a score could hope to
reach after three decades of service. He had to resign from that
post. He was said to be appointed chief operating officer of Khazanah
Holdings, the government investment arm.
But the central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia, amongst other financial
institutions, objected. He was to be a parliamentary candidate in the
March general elections, but he fell foul of the traditional native
leaders in Negri Sembilan and they blackballed him. He is now gone
into business, appointed as adviser to the merchant bank, ECM Libra,
which is widely touted in financial circles as the only one Pak Lah
favours.
But Mr Khairy's decline has the civil servants in Pak Lah's office and
elsewhere baying for blood. It is now accepted even by friends of
this 28-year-old that he is cause of Pak Lah's current political
difficulties. It was this group that planned the BN campaign for the
general elections, when it decided the BN must decimate the
opposition by hook or by crook. This they believed would give Pak Lah
the legitimacy he needs for the UMNO presidency. It did not.
They orchestrated the UMNO presidential elections so no one else would
be nominated but him. He managed it, with the challenger, Tengku
Razaleigh Hamzah, getting only one nomination. All others who would
have voted for him were told of what faced them on the morrow if they
did: bankruptcy or worse. The reality has sunk in in Putra Jaya. The
UMNO ground is so angry at being short-changed that a ground swell of
delegates next month could well vote for anyone who is not in Pak
Lah's camp.
That would be disaster for Pak Lah. Especially if the civil service
decides that this supercillous influence must be got rid off for
good. The man who probably was one of the most popular in UMNO in
recent years is now the demon. He must repair that damage first. He
needs the civil servants more than ever, and he has to eat humble
pie. So he requests the editor-in-chief of the New Straits Times,
Dato' Khalimullah Hassan, once a member of this charmed inner circle,
to resolve this impasse between his son-in-law's coterie and the
civil service.
How he could is another matter, for it was he who blew Mr Khairy to
the heights he did, with fawning articles that could only put the
young man in trouble. He is as much to blame for Mr Khairy's
predicament as the man himself. But it is a loaded dice. For the
civil service is as unlikely to listen to him as they would Mr
Khairy. If he succeeds, he remains in this charmed circles, albeit at
the outer edges. If he does not, then at least he has ECM Libra to
look after.
But it was a crisis waiting to happen. There is no doubt this group
had their uses to Pak Lah. But it should have been as back-room boys,
not as front-line troops. They did not understand the ground, the
local sensitivities, the uneasy relationship between UMNO politicians
and civil servants, each regarding themselves as masters in their own
right with the same ground, but with this awesome reality that one
needs the other.
The politician cannot survive without the civil servant's blessings
for as he rose in arrogance and believed it gave him power in his own
right, he needed the civil servants to pick up the pieces. The new
elite in UMNO are the children of UMNO leaders and civil servants.
When an attempt is made to discard one half of this Malay elite,
blood must flow, as it now threatens to.
When UMNO decided that since it is in power, it did not need to
explain itself to its members and the country at large, that having
been returned to office, it can do what it likes, and the electorate
must keep quiet or face the consequences. This kept the electorate
quiet while it was sidetracked with flashy television programmes and
other irrelevances while their rights were quietly taken over and
realised on their behalf.
The former prime minister and UMNO president, Dato' Seri Mahathir
Mohamed, managed to maintain the stranglehold with an autocratic
governance that brooked no interference. The jailed of his former
deputy prime minister and the sacking of assorted cabinet ministers
for challenging his views was enough to keep the cabinet and state
UMNO leaders in line. Pak Lah, or at least his Oxbridge advisers,
believed he could and better than Dr Mahathir. That was its first
mistake. From then on it was one mistake after another.
On this UMNO elections hinges the future of several UMNO leaders, the
most important of whom is the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib
Tun Razak. If Pak Lah gets his way, the current thinking is he and
several others would be forced out after the polls. All of them, like
all BN leaders, have committed what you and I would be taken to court
for. For them it is a sword which can fall at any time. Ask Dato'
Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
But unless Pak Lah puts his foot down firmly, this infighting could
only worsen. If he wants to do all his young advisers want him to, he
must get enough of his men into the UMNO supreme council. It gives
him the authority to do put his seal on the government. This would
include sackings, recasting his cabinet, and putting some backbone
into it. But this would at the cost of some political futures. If he
does not, then he cannot move and his government would continue to
flounder. Then the UMNO opposition to him would strengthen, and he
would not be able to counter it. But first things first. Could his
peacemaker keep the peace or throw his administration into pieces?
M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com
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