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Dato' Seri Money Politics

THE FORMER MALAYSIAN PRIME prime minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, was asked to partake in money politics in 1974, in his bid to be UMNO vice-president. He would have none of it, and came in third. He is not correct here in his recollections: He was on the then UMNO president, Tun Abdul Razak's preferred list of three vice-presidents, and his list was returned. Be that as it may, what he said about money politics and vote buying is true. It is equally true that UMNO leaders tolerated it. Within two years, Dr Mahathir was deputy minister, and prime minister in seven. But he did nothing to reduce its spread. He now has a spin to it now: "If you think that corruption is very bad, your friend has to go. I had to decide against my friend once, you know." He admits, offhandedly, that the only corruption he was prepared to make an issue of was the corruption for which his "friend", Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim was unceremoniously sacked, detained under the Internal Security Act, beaten to a pulp by the Inspector-General of Police no less, convicted in a series of trials that continue to raise doubts about the equitability of Malaysian justice.

In the second part of his interview in The Star (18 October 2004, p28-29), he suggests UMNO leaders cannot stop money politics, however abhorent it was, because no one would come forward with evidence. UMNO leaders address money politics with a cynicism that beggars belief. Produce the proof and we would act, is the common refrain. It would not bring the anti-corruption agency to investigate. Its disciplinary committee is toothless, and few UMNO members expect it to be anything else, even if members come forward and the evidence is overwhelming. It suggests this uproar over money politics, amongst the leaders, is to hide its rampancy, for fear that in a thorough investigation, many leaders, from the president down, could be guilty. And having done their good deed for the day, they move on in hope it would disappear from the public eye.

Over the years UMNO would not address it, and money politics aka bribery soon became the grease that fed the elections. It is now so rampant that delegates and others routinely sent their bank account details to potential candidates, usually through SMS messages, for money to be banked in for their vote. The candidates are expected to house the delegates and meet their expenses, in addition to money for votes. They spent millions of ringgint – one vice-presidential candidate is reputed to have spent RM20 million, RM5 million on the night before the poll. Some put the amount spent on bribes to at least RM400 million. One paid his bribes in euros, another in state awards. Of the 83 dato's in the Malacca honours list, 50 went to UMNO divisional leaders and other vote producers in the state chief minister, Dato' Seri Ali Rastam's successful bid to be vice-president. The lesser awards from Malacca went to other UMNO officials who helped him win. If he had lost, it would have been an awards list no one could complain of.

I suspect the horror at this blatant use of state awards is not that it happened, but that it crossed the limit. The tirade against the former Selangor mentri besar, Dato' Harun Idris, in the 1970s for which he was convicted and jailed, was that, as Dato' Seri Ali now, he pushed the limit by collecting money for his election campaign by selling off state land for political power. There is a thin line between selling state land and state awards. Then, too, I recall a similar campaign against Dato' Harun. But it died down, and all chief ministers and mentris besar now indulge in it. No one raises a whimper now, as I expect none would in future years when dato'ships and state awards are awarded in return for political power. But in one sense, Dato' Ali did only what the UMNO leaders at the centre did over the years: they would instruct the state leaders to recommend their nominees for state awards; some were civil servants, but most were for BN politicians.

The horror and shock of the Malacca awards is so highly blown only because Dato' Seri Ali is not in the official camp of the prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. So he is abused with impunity. The focus is narrowed to him and no one else. I dare say that of those who were elected into the UMNO supreme council, from the president down, perhaps a quarter dozen stood on their principles and refused to pay a bribe for votes. All else are guilty. Which is why clear proof is demanded before UMNO would act. But this issue would not go away. Weeks after the UMNO assembly last month, the only subject of discussion about it is the vote buying and the blatant bribery. It rises in tandem with every demand for proof, and the official disquiet about the Malacca award-for-vote scandal.

But BN, especially UMNO, politicians have dominated state and federal awards for decades. New awards are coined to accommodate this profusion of titles. Business men found it paid to have several dato'ships; one I know have more dato'ships than there are states, with a Tan Sriship to prove his connexions with the BN-UMNO heirarchy. The once careful vetting of recipients of state and federal awards disappeared when political expediency took over. The late Sultan Ibrahim of Johore would offer three dato'ships a year – one each for public and civil service, the third rotated among the two every second year – that the awards were respected. He was not averse to stripping the titles if they did not pay their bills or got caught in a police raid of brothels or brought the award to disrepute in other ways.

His son, Sultan Ismail, could not hold the line when the mentri besar of the day insisted he had the last say. Relations got so bad that the sultan routinely had a separate list of one more than the mentri besar's. This led to 101 dato's one year: a wide nest was cast, that some were known for what earned them the tile. One was known as "Dato' Permaidani" for he had presented the mentri besar with an expensive Persian carpet; another "Dato' Binatang", for the animal he presented to the Johore Zoo. His son, Sultan Iskandar, cleaned this up, by stripping several of their titles, and allows only a limited number of dato's every year, often deciding that none qualified in particular years.

When awards are freely given and in the gift of politicians, it does not take long for cash to change hands. It is an open secret how much one needs to pay for a title. One who wants a title can always get it if he is prepared to pay for it. Now the scam has gone one step further: the sale of fake awards. Two men, one now dead and the other still in Pak Lah's cabinet, were recommended by a former Yang Dipertuan Agung for Tan Sris; the then prime minister, Dr Mahathir, agreed, but the pair did not get it. The man who translated the final list in Jawi substituted his name for one, and a business man for the other. When this was known, Dr Mahathir did nothing about it. In another instance, the sultan wanted to honour a prominent civil servant from his state, but the man's head of department, who must be informed of it, decided he needed it more than his deputy.

It is this refusal to act that makes it difficult to control the mess in the following years. Now it is out of control. Any award, even for civil servants, must have the approval of a BN component party. Names are added at the last minute, when once the list was vetted and pruned months before the award, with care taken to ensure he is an upright member of society. Nowadays the list is often assembled a few months before the award, with little or no checks, and submitted without knowing who the recipients often are. Two gangsters from Selangor got their datoships, recommended by the MCA president, Dato' Seri Ong Ka Ting. There was a hue and cry when it was revealed, but in a few years it would be business as usual. The lure of filthy lucre is too strong for it to be cast aside. It has nothing to do with the sultan's desire to keep the awards for what it was meant to be: for public and other service, and issued sparingly. Today, however deserving the candidate for a datoship, he must first be approved by the political party representing his community. Why should it?

In earlier times, the political parties recommended names which were accepted or rejected after vetting. Now no recommendation from a political party is rejected. Each has its quota and so long as it keeps to it, the awards are given out, even if it was mooted a week before the ceremony. No one wants to address what this means: the state and federal awards are to keep the members quiet. One who makes too much noise or raises inconvenient issues are told in no uncertain terms that he would never get a state award. It is enough to keep many in line. The opposition is of course excluded. Multiple awards for politically connected business men, journalists and others are only too common. If the awards system must be brought to a manageable level, an UMNO president with the firmness of a Sultan Iskandar must act. But there is none like him around – yet.

[I wrote this for my column in Harakah, the PAS organ, and is published today, 19 October 2004.]

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