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The powerful and impotent autocrats of the people

THE SELANGOR MENTRI BESAR, Dato' Seri Mohamed Khir Toyo, reacts as any politician when blame is laid at a his door: blame the civil servants, others, everyone else; he alone is free of blame. When the Sabah chief minister, Dato' Seri Musa Aman, is caught with his hands in the till, he brazens it out. Both are naked, even if one is backed by the prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the other not. If one goes, Pak Lah goes with him; if the other stays, Pak Lah does not. Pak Lah therefore wants Dato' Seri Musa to stay but not Dato' Seri Khir. Or that is how the UMNO president would like us to believe. The Sabah and Selangor leaders are in equal trouble. And go they must. The longer they stay, the messier their departure.

Pak Lah is silent about the arrogant, supercilious Sabah warlord, but vocal against the arrogant, supercilious Selangor chief. His political future depends on it. Dato' Seri Musa believes he can ride it through. Dato' Seri Khir knows he cannot. That they behave so shows how parliamentary democracy has mutated over the years to vest absolute power in the UMNO president, with parliament and state assemblies rubber stamps. He appoints all candidates, as head of the National Front (BN), for state and parliamentary elections, in truth by default because individual BN party chiefs ignore party councils to nominate their favourites, and make the BN chief annoint them to sidestep party pressure and anger. So the UMNO president, as prime minister, is in total control of party and government, overriding at will the constitution and federal-state relations.

After the elections, he decides on the chief ministers and mentris besars in BN-controlled states; the only exception is Sarawak, where the local warlord, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, wants federal protection against his coalition partners but not its interference. In Penang, the UMNO president made a Faustian bargain with the Gerakan chief minister, that in return for his support, the MCA would remain a junior partner and UMNO the real power in the state. This breaks down when the opposition takes over, as in Kelantan, Trengganu, Sarawak, Sabah at different times since the first general election in 1959. The BN, or the Alliance, as its predecessor was known, would then pull no stops to rout the intruder in the name of parliamentary democracy.

When one man calls the shots, however democratically and elegantly, an authoritarian dictatorship creeps in, protected by a bodyguard of self-serving politicians, business men, and lies to mask the inevitable decline of the common weal. The events of the past week revealed that in good measure. Dato' Seri Khir and Dato' Seri Musa believed they had Pak Lah's backing for their arrogant and greedy running of their states, that he would protect them from the people fed up of their antics. But this Faustian bargain is personal, not a general rule. When pressure builds on Pak Lah, as UMNO president, he must act. Since he assumed office as prime minister, and elected UMNO president, he has not. He issues orders and statements to tell the world he does what is expected of him. But most, if not all, of those are hot air.

This now comes to haunt him. He succeeded Tun Mahathir Mohamed as prime minister in November 2003. Instead of reshuffling the cabinet – for two reasons: to have his own men in, and the bad blood between the two men at the handover – he retained Tun Mahathir's cabinet. He would change it, he said, after the general election for the sound reason that his hold on the party machinery was tenuous at best. The party warlords – chief ministers, mentris besars, and others – flexed their muscles. To short circuit that, his advisers and hatchet men colluded to ensure a resounding electoral victory in the March 2004 so his hold on party and government is unchallenged. It did not. The differences widened. The party is all but split in the middle. He feared the cabinet ministers he sacked would join the other side. He did nothing. He lost more ground.

Then he decided the UMNO presidency would give him the aura to his mantle of power. He could recoup the UMNO heart if he won decisively. But again the rules were fudged so a challenger would be stopped dead in his tracks. That was so obvious, and soon spread to the wanita, youth and puteri wings that UMNO members decided Pak Lah is weaker than they thought. So it turned out. The UMNO elections did not go his way. He does not control the UMNO supreme council, even after the nominated appointments in his gift. Meanwhile, UMNO revolts in ways that highlights his political impotence. The promised cabinet reshuffle remains a myth.

The chief ministers and mentris besar saw their chance to break free of the UMNO president's suffocating embrace. But they too took that to mean they could do as they liked without federal disapproval. They believed their future is decided in secret cabals and without the support of those who elected them. But they made, and make, the same mistake as Pak Lah: that they would continue to be unchallenged. But when the UMNO president is under pressure, as party leader and prime minister, he transfers his troubles to a convenient state scapegoat. He found it in Dato' Seri Khir.

But both made the same mistake: they thought they could pull it off quietly and without fuss. Both ignored that UMNO warlords, in their own political design, raised the ante in Selangor. The "Utusan Malaysia" exposes of the rape of the rain forest surrounding the Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam agricultural park, forced the issue into the public domain. Dato' Seri Khir realised how naked he was. He rushed home from an irrelevant official overseas tour to fumble and mumble his way into more trouble. All it revealed is how impotent all involved are. Why does Pak Lah play to the gallery? He would not act if it is true. Why did he have to fly over the area to see for himself? Why did he rush into a constitutional crisis as he now has to remove the Selangor mentri besar. Especially when it revealed how weak he was.

That reveals his weakness, as UMNO president, prime minister and as a man. Since the UMNO president decides, he should sack him if he lied, as he clearly has. The mainstream newspapers, taking their cue from the political masters, are unsure if Dato' Seri Khir has a case, and so allow him to explain what he cannot and blame who cannot fight back. But it also reveals Pak Lah's continued weakness as UMNO president and prime minister, not Dato' Seri Khir's rape of the rain forest and the common weal. Many companies accused of the rape of the rain forest are linked to him. No municipal council would dare protest if wrong doing is done by his companies. The slide down the greasy pole of politics of all involved has begun.

Unless Pak Lah decides he is primus inter pares in UMNO and as prime minister, governs by consensus. allows constitutional formalities to be followed, nothing would change. He could start by allowing the Sultan of Selangor to decide who should be Dato' Seri Khir's succesor. If that is too drastic, allow the state assembly to elect whom it wants as mentri besar. He succeeded Dato' Seri Abu Hassan, who was forced out of office after his creative matrimonial arrangements came to light, a new broom, as it were, after Tan Sri Mohamed Taib resigned after his Australian caper. A man untouched by scandal was called for to succeed him. Tun Mahathir found him in his son's choice: Dato' Seri Khir. His successor is probably the man who missed out when Dato' Seri Khir was anointed. That is, if the prime minister would break out of his belief he must control every detail in his vast domain. Then he could at least hope of remaining prime minister beyond the UMNO party election in 2007.

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