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Could Pak Lah meet the Najib challenge?

THE US IRAQ STUDY Group reported that the former Iraqi government, under President Saddam Hussein, alloted Malaysian prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, through a Malaysian company called Tradeyear, oil vouchers worth 2m barrels under the UN Oil-for-Food programme. Other Malaysian beneficiaries are a company controlled by a Sabah business man, the Malaysian petroleum giant, Petronas, a retired Malaysian ambassador, an Iraqi resident amongst others. This announcement came at an inconvenient time. Pak Lah had just called on Malaysian business men to eschew corruption as a way of life.

The ISG report suggests, to the laymen, of one set of rules for us and another for them. That Pak Lah's dictum is "do as I say, not as I do". Pak Lah, in Hanoi for the EU-Asean summit, promptly denied it. The foreign minister, Dato' Seri Syed Hamid Albar, ever the lap dog, ordered Wisma Putra, the foreign office, to investigate how Pak Lah came to be on that list, and to protest at the highest level in Washington. The deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, exenorates him in praise dipped in vitriol. The mainstream newspapers carried the denial and of all who said it was to denigrate Pak Lah, and moved on to other irrelevant issues: Pak Lah has explained it, he is never wrong, and that is that. But the Iraqi, a relative of Uday, Saddam's son, by marriage, was once married to Pak Lah's sister-in-law. Pak Lah does not like him. That does not matter.

This will not go away. Too many now believe there can be no smoke without fire. Only Pak Lah has denied it. None of the others have. That can only mean that they received the oil vouchers. We are now asked to believe that the others were given oil vouchers but not the then deputy prime minister, when those around him would not miss a chance for easy money to recommend the offer be rejected. There is more to it than meets the eye. Pak Lah says he wrote letters of recommendation for those who wanted to partake in the UN oil-for-food programme. This is not unusual, says Dato' Seri Najib. "The letters are not unusual because people want the documents to introduce themselves (to a third party)," he said, "Almost almost all ministries do this. The letters cannot be interpreted as having an interest in the matter (oil-for-food scam)" (The Star, 11 October 2004, p2). If the oil-for-food scheme was a scam, as Dato' Seri Najib now says, why is no action taken against the Malaysian firms involved.

What embarrasses Pak Lah is that it happened when he was deputy prime minister. If the rumours swirling about it has any basis, there is more to it than meets the eye. He must clear it once and for all. For if he does not, it would pit him headlong against his deputy, Dato' Seri Najib, who no doubt savours the embarrassment he is in. This official denial forces him to confront his deputy in ways he never thought he would have to. The recent UMNO elections gave the anti-Pak Lah groups 19 of the 25 supreme council seats. Even with the 10 appointed members in his gift, and even if the three vice-presidents back him (they do not), he is hard put to control it. The largest of the anti-Pak Lah members back his predecessor, Tun Mahathir Mohamed. Dato' Seri Najib is the frontrunner of that group.

Pak Lah is therefore in more trouble than he realises. Dato' Seri Najib's forces are not about to let go. He must act soon, and firmly, if he expects to be more than the lame duck he already is. He is prone to make asinine statements dressed up as considered thought: acquire knowledge, honour your parents, be clean, don't bribe. He has, in less than a year, become a laughing stock. He has become, in one sense, like President George W Bush caught in the thralls of the neo-conservatives. He has made too many mistakes in the past year, and adds to them with issues like the oil-for-food vouchers. He wants to succeed without working for it. He thinks he can keep UMNO at bay if he does nothing. But all this has brought him is a dysfunctional cabinet, a dysfunctional UMNO, a dysfunctional BN helped in no small measure by a dysfunctional civil service and government institutions.

But all is not lost. He must draw a line behind him, and act swiftly to contain the rot. He must decide in the three years before the next UMNO elections he would clean the mess of his predecessors, thoroughly spring clean the government and party, sack most of his deadwood cabinet ministers, arrest the 18 high profile corrupt men and women in his fight against corruption, forget about his popularity in UMNO and earn the respect of all Malaysians by doing what he ought to. Since he has to depend on a corrupted system to carry out his plans, not all could work, sabotage would be the norm, but at least he would get the genuine respect of the people fed up with the inequities of the system, the most important of which, even if he would not acknowledge it, is corruption. It is a tall order. But has he any choice? He cannot depend on the newspapers to tell him what happens around the country, for they have one rule, and one only: to make him good no matter what.

He is left with few friends. The UMNO warlords, the traditional supporters of the president, are rebellious. UMNO is ridden in factions so numerous that they are a world unto their own. The party is for sale, as the Pahang mentri besar, Dato' Seri Adnan Yaakob, declared, and could be bought by foreign interests for as little as RM2billion. Few of these interest groups back him, even if they publicly proclaim their undying loyalty. They know the centre is weak, and can hold it to ransom at will. The recent UMNO elections was a point: money was the only currency for votes, one candidate ingeniously offering euros as bribes, and collectible overseas. The widespread allegation of vote buying loftily ignored because no one complained to the party disciplinary committee. But it is so serious that the Anti-Corruption must be brought in.

If he does not act, he would be embroiled in needless turf battles with Dato' Seri Najib. He is on the defensive now. He has annoyed the Mahathir, Najib, Anwar Ibrahim camps, who are against him because he is not with them. It is an odd role for the prime minister and UMNO president to be in. He has to spend his waking hours to get out of their clutches. His position gets the worse by the day for he does not act as he must. He lets things slide, compensating action with words so impotent as to be ignored. He should not delay naming the ten UMNO supreme council members, reshuffling his cabinet and the party heirarcy with fresh blood and retiring the others. He must set a new agenda in which the larger public good must take precedence over UMNO. If he does not, he would not last the next UMNO election in 2007, and forgotten as swiftly. He deserves more than that. But would he do what must?

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