Corruption and abuse of power in UMNO Hadhari elections
2004-08-07
CORRUPTION AND ABUSE OF power is the staple of the UMNO politician.
One cannot exist without the other; indeed, the worthy judges has
decided, in the Anwar Ibrahim trial, that one is the other, that
money and abuse of power go hand in hand. In UMNO, it is used with
impunity. If money will not get what an UMNO politician wants, he
uses all the power in his command to get it. It does not matter if
the politician wants to be UMNO president or branch chairman.
But corruption and abuse of power, if it gets too widespread, destroys
UMNO. The leaders accept it, the members accept it, the party
constitution forbids it, the party will go to the dogs if leaders are
chosen by corruption and abuse of power. UMNO decides this is wrong,
and bans it. But it is also true no UMNO politician can be elected to
office if he or she will not avail of it. It has become part of
UMNO's culture that the vote of a delegate goes to the highest
bidder.
And what a candidate must pay to get that vote depends on how UMNO's
leaders react to corruption and abuse of power. In this UMNO
elections, the acting UMNO president made use of his prime
ministerial powers to ensure no one but he was nominated for the
post. It was for this abuse of power that his predecessor as deputy
prime minister was jailed for corruption. Once the election is over
and the UMNO presidency and deputy presidency secured, the two men
rail against corruption.
But an SMS making the rounds says it all: 'Beri, salah; tak beri,
kalah; pesanan Pak Lah' (Literally: To give, wrong; not give, and
lose; by order of Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi). At the Taiping
divisonal elections, the delegates were paid RM1,100, in three
tranches of RM300, RM300 and RM500, for a vote. It was repeated in
every UMNO division in the peninsular and Sabah. UMNO once expelled a
business man who spent RM6 million to be a branch head.
Anecdotal stories of corruption are so widely disseminated, often from
the recipients of the largesse, that for all the rules and
regulations to prohibit it, it cannot now be stopped. The delegate
knowing his value demands it. To him or her, it does not matter if it
is legal or not; if some one wants to pay for his or her vote, then
so be it. If they are stupid enough not to demand guarantees, he or
she would be quite happy to accept similar largesse for that single
vote from others with money to burn, and then vote according to his
conscience.
For the UMNO general assembly next month, the going rate for a
delegate is RM600 per vote and four days of hotels and expenses. As
in years past, the delegate would make a profit of attending the
general assembly. The rate went up by RM100 when UMNO demanded that
candidates cannot campaign, the delegates should know who they are,
and vote accordingly.
This gives those in the public eye – cabinet ministers, chief
ministers, state executive councillors, prominent business men – a
built-in advantage to those who only want to be in politics but
fights an uphill task to make himself known. The only way out for him
is to be corrupt. For a Malay to succeed in his official and
professional life, the closeness to political power is an important
requisite. He would sell his soul for that.
Look at those who made the cut for the UMNO vice-presidency and
supreme council: those who got the most nominations invariably used
their financial and political clout; those who scraped through, did not.
This is the one fundamental difference between UMNO that was declared
illegal by the courts and the UMNO Hadhari (or Progressive UMNO) of
Tun Mahathir Mohamed and Pak Lah. In the old UMNO, every one had a
chance to contest, subject to a nominal hurdle of two nominations.
That changed when Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah did not get as many
nominations as Dr Mahathir for the UMNO presidency in 1987 but came
within 40 votes of defeating him. When the history of UMNO is written
in the future, when these events can be viewed in calm and
reflection, it would no doubt show the complicity of UMNO's then
leaders in making the party illegal, and how a new and progressive
UMNO was formed for no immediate reason than to deny Tengku Razaleigh
ever to challenge him.
In other words, UMNO Hadhari was formed to deny Tengku Razaleigh his
right to challenge the leaders. As usual, in this blessed land of
ours, the rules and regulations are made on the run, with rules
changed mid-stream when defeat is likely. In this ad hoc fine-tuning,
the central message of why UMNO Hadhari is lost. As now. Pak Lah
cannot get the legitimacy he needs to be UMNO president in his own
right.
It worsened when Tengku Razaleigh, representing a sizeable contrarian
view in UMNO, could only obtain one nomination – from his UMNO
division of Gua Musang. Now Pak Lah must ensure his men are elected
as UMNO vice-presidents and supreme councillors. It is tough going.
The UMNO ground broils at this corruption and abuse of power for the
UMNO presidency and deputy presidency nominations and the
manipulation this caused. The UMNO ground broils, but it does not
have the vote. The delegates have that. The question is if they would
listen to the ground or to power of money and abuse of power that is
the hallmark of UMNO Hadhari. On the delegates therefore rest the
future of their political party.
M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com
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