MGG Pillai Commentary View

<< Previous || Next >>

Could an iron tree blossom?

DECADES IN OFFICE CONVINCES a National Front (BN) cabinet minister he is brilliant, inviolable, untouchable, undismissible. The BN-controlled mainstream media, whose sole purpose is to make this known to all and sundry, wait upon them, print their often ludicrous statements in ever loving detail. The editors know if they comply, gold and title awaits them; and dross, if not. They should be praised without question, and attacked or humoured when so directed. Three decades of newspaper readers have learnt the difficult but essential art of reading between the lines to find out what is not printed or broadcast and often alluded.

What makes it easy is that those who report have to watch their backs too; a slip and they are out of a job. No one wants that, so when an important BN personage is interviewed, only a senior editor and several of lesser rank could; a single reporter is dangerous, for if the perspective is not "right", the jobs of their seniors are on the line, too. This is God-sent. First, there are several news stories of that interview; then the full interview. In these days of a distinterested public wanting to read the mainstream press, a brief summary is all one reads, the full interview often on their Internet web pages.

The reporters report, as a secretary takes dictation from her boss, the editors grumbe to any who would listen the report is unreadable and how they spend hourse to make it readable, blame the reporters for lack of English. There is truth in this but often this is how many a cabinet minister of high official speaks, in English or Malay, and it is this near verbatim report the editor has to deal with. But the carping and the frustration comes with the job. They know if what comes out offends those in power, they get the sack.

The papers often tell you more to those who seek it. What seems dross is gold. More than a decade ago, I spent a month in Myanmar, where the same culture prevails but the news items are tighter and better controlled than here. But by reading the several English newspapers – between the lines, of course – I could get a sense of what was happening in the country, which generally confirmed when meeting the ministers, officials and diplomats. I must add I had an old journalist friend, then in his 80's, who would fill in the details. That is how it works now here too.

One thing you could not in Myanmar and could here is how cabinet ministers interact. Ministerial verbal diarrhoea, and mainstream media vomit, often tells you more than acres of newsprint. Let us look at a few examples. The works minister, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, was mercilessly taken to task for the failure of several public works projects which crony companies built without official supervision.

When the first – the Middle Ring Road II flyover in Kepong – was revealed, he laid the blame on every one he could think of but the contractor, designer and architect. His view then was of a surgeon who declares the operation a success but the patient dies. Then several hospitals – in Johore Bahru, Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh – was infected by a fungus that made it white elephants before it started. But he declared the contractors free of blame.

The mainstream poodle press reported this too. Then several stretches of the North-South HIghway collapsed in landfalls in heavy rains. Out of the blue, BN, almost to a man UMNO, MPs rose in revolt, demanding his resignation. Dato' Seri Samy was attacked mercilessly in Parliament. He was not present. It did not matter. The deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, insisted he must explain.

He continued to believe he is inviolable, even if he reversed him to blacklist the crony contractors. But the bravado is still there. He would reveal shortcomings in other ministries, in education and defence, a swipe at the blotted tenure of the deputy prime minister in the two ministries. The prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who knew nothing of it until it blew up, chided the UMNO MPs for demanding Dato' Seri Samy's resignation, which he insists they cannot call for, called for report from the minister.

"I am very unhappy with all these happenings. There have been a lot of complaints. Something must be wrong," Pak Lah said (Sunday Star, p1), "I want to hear from Samy Vellu why these things are happening and to find out why." This has given Dato' Seri Samy courage. But his lion-like roar is a little muted as reality hits home.

Nothing is left to chance. If the MPs raised hell at Dato' Seri Samy, they did not on their own free will. Defiance is costly but MPs these days are embolden by public support if they criticise the government. Pak Lah must show he cares, he wants to see off the works minister in double quick time, but he is restrained by the BN convention that component party leaders cannot be sacked. Dato' Seri Samy would not resign. But if there is public pressure, the man must resign on his own.

Like a caged, weakened, exhausted lion, he roars to confound his critics. As another BN leader who finds his 22 years in office reduced to political rubble, he grasps any straw he sees. He thought he covered his tracks to deny his deputy a parliamentary seat, but that is a minor difficulty for Pak Lah. His threats mean nothing. He has no option but to fall in line. Others more powerful than he went to jail for their defiance.

If Dato' Seri Samy were to resign, the new MIC president, not an MP and cannot be a senator for he has completed his maximum six years as senator, cannot hold cabinet office. Pak Lah can in conscience appoint any Indian, not necessarily from the MIC, into the cabinet. But those close to Dato' Seri Samy insist that if Mr Tan Koon Swan could be Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) president without a cabinet seat, why could not Dato' Seri S. Subramaniam as MIC president. But in present political circumstances that analogy would not hold.

There is more. BN party leaders decide their community benefits only if they remain at the helm, hang on to office by fair means and foul, in time lose touch with their ground, and in time a thousand mutinies fester and which do deign not to recognise. In this surreal world, they lose sight of reality, react with force, and believe the ground's unwillingness to react except on its terms is proof they have poodles for members.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Especially when the hangers on, for their self-interest, would cushion their leaders from reality. But too many things go wrong. Pak Lah has to act firmly, but he cannot. He is in mortal combat with the his deputy, Dato' Seri Najib, with the odds, as it stands, against him. The Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), the Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (GRM), the Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS), the Sarawak National Party (SNAP), the Sabah UMNO are in like mortal combat within.

There are two reasons for this: one is the former BN and UMNO president, and prime minister for 22 years, Tun Mahathir Mohamed; the other is his once-friend and now arch enemy, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Their mortal combat in 1998 began the slow and deliberate destruction of BN and UMNO. The two unlikely foes must unite before BN and UMNO could unite once more in strength. Especially when divisions within BN and UIMNO reflect this mortal combat. Could that happen? Could an iron tree bloom?

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