MGG Pillai Commentary View

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The coming revolt of the middle class

THE NATIONAL FRONT (BN) GOVERNMENT is caught in its own trap. Suffused in false logic, doubtful premises, with no clue what it wants, it privatised government and public services and assets to crony business men and politicians aligned to the establishment. They did not know, nor care, how to run the businesses they were handed on a plate. There was no pretense of fairness or scrutiny of who got them. It did not matter. Whoever got them was linked to one cabinet minister. Many became billionaires in this shuffling of paper, selling assets, listing companies on the stock exchange, moving them like pieces on a chess board, with accountants planning ingenious schemes to run down the underlying public services and assets and enrich those who run it. And run them to ground.

Without exception, every one is a failure. The hidden controllers however are BN politicians, usually men and women on the make, who appoint men and women, of proven incompetence and easily controlled by crony politicians, to the assets and services into bankruptcy. The government willingly rescue them at every failure, only to bail them again that in the end reveals the utter waste of hundreds of billions of public funds and the companies themselves in virtual bankruptcy. Those who started this scam – there is no better word to describe it – moved on to lose money elsewhere. Many owe banks as much, if not more than, their worth. They run for cover for they cannot repay their debts. This sustained over-reaching without the means runs through the official psyche.

All caution is thrown to the winds. What looked like self-confidence in the early years was anything but. Greed is cloaked as humanity, carried with applomb, with a retinue of spinmeisters who prevailed in the official and mainstream media. This euphoria of presumed success was blown out of proportion into a belief that defeat and decline could be banished for ever. This culture prevailed in government, in BN politics,and business, justified with nonsensical data, doubtful evidence and theory. It works so long as the spin could. It now threatens to crash. What made it worse was that official policy was growth for growth's sake. But outside this bubble, dramatic changes for the worse threatened the BN's continued political control was dismissed as opposition sour grapes.

There was more. The BN presumed, rightly, that so long as the Malay, Chinese and Indian middle class backed it, the opposition had no chance. The opposition, hopelessly divided, did not help. The BN's arrogance it could do as it pleased and its total control of government and parliament allowed it to believe it could do as it liked. Until a middle class revolt appeared. It came from an unlikely corner: its own deputy president and deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Those who marched in his support when he was sacked, jailed, manhandled, humiliated were middle class Malaysians led by them. The government shocked at this retaliated blindly, set the police loose on them, as if they were criminals, when it should have paused to reflect what happened, and review its policies to prevent it in future.

Its mishandling made the middle class to confront. When government policies and taxes push more middle class to the breadline, it will desert the government for the opposition. By nature, it is conservative and support the government of the day. But when government policies and actions squeeze them into poverty, all it needs is an effective middle class leader to lead them. It has one in Dato' Seri Anwar. The BN, especially UMNO as its predominant partner, finds in shock its future is held to ransom by a man it dismissed and humiliated. He cannot return to UMNO, but as opposition leader, he is the greater threat. In short, the political, economic, social and other policies of the BN government, concocted in isolation, often without relevance, today haunts it.

Long term policies are decided ad hoc, and changed or ignored when they become inconvenient or irrelevant though only after the damage is done. Cabinet ministers, caught by this clear and open resentment of the middle class, threaten the people when confronted with the mistakes of their policies. Profligacy and irrelevance dictate public policy. Petronas spent RM40 billion to build the first phase of Putra Jaya, and cannot maintain it, let alone continue to build the rest of it. The prime minister's residence, a 400-room monstrosity, cost RM200 million to build, but when it became a political issue in Parliament, it was told unequivocally that his living quarters cost only RM17 million. it was a lie. But it was accepted in good faith. Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who succeeded Tun Mahathir Mohamed, orders a RM30 million facelift to his official quarters before he moves in. No parliamentary approval was asked for. Besides, why does a building less than five years old need a face lift nearly twice what it cost? Reason flies out the window, starting at the top.

But this in one sense raises no political upheaval. But rise in prices, of every day commodities and public transport, does. To sidestep it, the minister for entrepreneurial development and cooperatives, Dato' Khaled Nordin, shifts public furore over higher fares to the alleged greed of public transport operators. They should be concerned about service and not profit, he thunders. If they disagree, they should leave for other fields. His spin is they already make large profits. Besides, "the public transportation (sic) industry is more a service than a business" and it should not amass "a lot of wealth" nor room for companies "looking to reap large profits." He continues: "If the expectation of companies is to make lots of money, then they are in the wrong business," he said in Johore Bahru, where he had the perfect foil – the opening of a boutique – to announce his misguided view. He thinks the public would be with him. It would not. The BN in the end would take the flak for the rising prices.

Official extravagance is unabated. Billions of ringgit are wasted on dubious projects. The cabinet wants Malaysians to tighten their belts but would not itself. Why should civil servants and politicians, for instance, accompany ministers and deputy ministers on holiday? Why is there no attempt to prune waste in public service? Why do cabinet ministers spend millions of ringgit to refurbishing their offices and residences every few years? Why is money not available for essential needs but is for greed, irrelevant projects, unnecessary luxury for cabinet ministers? When the BN government is caught having to explain the unexplainable, and react in either stupidity or fear, it lays the ground for quiescent middle class leaders to lead the disgruntled, the dissarrayed, the dissatisfied whose grumbles have so long been ignored. If it continues as now, it would make that a reality. Sooner than later.

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