MGG Pillai Commentary View

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The corruption of absolute power

IT COULD BE THE Selangor public account committee's belly dancing tour of Egypt, the Malacca state government's golfing tour of the United States, Muslim patrons in nightclubs or Muslim contestants of a beauty contest harassed and humiliated by the Selangor Religious Affairs Department (Jawi), schools so badly constructed that they have to be shut down within months of its opening, hundreds of millions of ringgit earmarked for major educational projects which are abandoned mid-way with no explanation, mentris besar annointing Umno division chiefs with dato'ships if they are elected to high party positions, private secretaries of cabinet ministers signing official papers they have no authority to, the list is endless. But every revelation is greeted in thunderous silence.

Once the National Front (BN) governments could pull this off with equanimity and aplomb. The political repercussions on the citizenry to challenge official dictates became too fearsome to contemplate. The BN government instilled the collective fear that walls have ears, and the collective view that the citizen's sole right is to elect the BN to power, that he stands to lose his self-respect in society if he should ask too many intrusive questions or, indeed, if he should vote those it does not like to Parliament or, God forbid, elect an opposition to power in a state.

So dominating is Umno in the BN and Malaysian politics – since 1955, it has governed at the centre and all 13 states, except on occasion it lost control of no more than four states, and only one in the 2004 general election, the opposition by and large still sees its role only to limit the BN's two-thirds majority in Parliament and the states – that even the BN parties allowed Umno to do as it likes. It is Umno which controls the levers of power, and allows BN party leaders to be as autocratic and irrational towards their constituents as Umno towards all Malaysians.

It ignored Lord Acton's dictum: power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. It forgot what held BN and Umno in a tight embrace was the cultural and political unity of the Malays. The May 1969 racial riots gave the Malays political and economic power by constitutional fiat.

The Umno leaders built on it, while the non-Malay Umno leaders enriched and, embolden by the absolute support of the Umno president, ignored the needs of their constituents. But when the cultural and political unity of the Malays clashed in the aftermath of the Anwar Ibrahim affair, all hell broke loose.

That this happened with such ease was of the BN's and Umno's own doing, reorganising them so that it is the leaders who decide who shall be elected, not the voters, insulating them from the ravages of political anger and frustrations. Umno the mass movement became Umno the political party. The other BN leaders saw how it protected the Umno leaders, and did likewise but, unlike Umno, in fear. The BN held together so long as Umno did. When Umno could not, it used the whip but its lashes does not sting as much now. Its call for public support to face an uncertain future is, by and large, rebuffed from the one community which could destroy it, the Malay cultural community.

The BN and Umno are buffeted by this arrogance with the younger Malaysians angry at being whipped and ignored for demanding answers. Politics in Malaysia is still dominated by BN and Umno, even if they recede into themselves and prone to regard those who elected them as enemies. They will not explain, they will not defend, they will not assuage, they will use the whip to keep in line but are helpless when the revolts continue unabated. The BN and Umno can dominate politics only with threats and undemocratic methods. And every unfair, illegal or unlawful action it takes challenged and resisted.

The BN federal or state government ignores it, hoping it would go away. But if it persists, as is often these days, the minister or state executive member concerned would offer an explanation far short of what should be, usually in a tone of utter astonishment that it could happen in this well-run state the BN runs, and escalates into the prime minister or mentri besar having to come in. At no time is the issue addressed, or blame apportioned. Scapegoats are sought, redress is promised, threats are made, but in the end, it is pushed under the carpet. And hope no one else would raise it again. Or until the next time any perfidy gets into the public eye.

Meanwhile, the official defenders of the faith pitch in, blaming the public for questioning the BN's sincerity and good intentions. But what should be addressed is not. Is the Selangor mentri besar denying that the state public accounts committee planned for a belly dancing holiday to Egypt without his or the state executive committee not knowing of it, or the Malacca chief minister that there was no correlation between the award of dato’ships to Umno division chiefs and his election as an Umno vice-president, or that the prime minister was unaware that the signature of a cabinet minister's private secretary is as legal as his boss's? Or that the Umno president is unaware of these corrupt practices of his leaders? Why are we then exposed to this charade where public debate is often at cross purposes, the issues discussed unreported and the attacks against this reported tendentiously in the Malaysian press?

The BN government and party takes each issue on its own, does not address it, but closes it with a riposte that does not begin to address the problem. In the meanwhile, highhandedness and official arrogance the rule, and when it finds itself on the defensive, threats are hurled, including detention under the Internal Security Act. Meanwhile, every benefit is lauded as the benefit of BN governance. The credit is wholly the BN's. The wrongs that of the people or worse, the opposition.

But this cannot go on for long. The BN breaks asunder from within, led by Umno. The BN, let us not forget, is beholden to a strong Umno. Umno however has been in irrevocable decline since 1998, after it dispatched to prison its one hope, and unable to recover because that hope is now rallying the opposition to mount a challenge in 2009, if not 2014. Umno is afraid of his shadow.

The BN component parties know of this, and have in recent months, if not years, looking to the opposition to see if they could play a useful role in the future. But they would be useless in any coalition not led by Umno, so used are they to be hewers of wood and carriers of water in the government.

The newspapers the BN controls, which are the main ones Malaysians read, as a rule ignore this rape of the common weal unless it is to destroy a political leader. It is the alternate and the internet press which wiggles these predatory raids on to the public conscience. The BN government understands this only too well. It wants a niche in this alternate press. So the Malaysian Today newspaper closes down its operation in Sarawak for Kuala Lumpur, to be distributed free, and with an internet presence.

To keep it afloat, the Malaysian government allots RM500,000 every month. A cabinet minister is in charge, but whether it is a government or Umno newspaper is unclear. The name is to confuse readers with that other internet newspaper, Malaysia Today (www.malaysia-today.net), that is the bane of the government and BN. It cannot survive on these parameters. It forgot one cardinal rule: one needs two hands to clap, but it believes it can with one hand. Which is why all these scandals and misuse of office come thundering down the hill with embarrassing regularity. So what else is new?

[This is my latest Chiaroscuro column in malaysiakini (www.malaysiakini.com) and is published today, 05 February 2005]

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