MGG Pillai Commentary View

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The will of the people

THE SELANGOR STATE GOVERNMENT believes in taking people for a ride. So does every state, and the federation, under the National Front (BN). The BN believes citizenship means voting it into power, and accept without question whatever it does, right or wrong. Questioning it is akin to treason. "You voted us in, we can do as we like," is how BN leaders look upon their role in government. It does not matter if the leader is from UMNO or from the other members of the coalition, only that the UMNO leader is more aggressive and, if he can get away with it, vicious. "We have been in power since 1955, we know what the people want, and if the people disagree with this, we will punish them," is how BN leaders retort when they are put in a spot. But they live in a fool's world. They could in the past. Not now. The cultural magic that bound the communities to their leaders in BN is challenged, but they believe they can get away with it.

They cannot. A reformation, if not revolution, in the communities whose leaders are also the nation's, has begun. There is panic at the top. In fright, the laws are tightened, the cabinet, which should have been put to pasture a decade ago, continue to flay and wail, as a drunk in the town centre, threatening perdition and damnation but dismissed by those gaping at him as a mad man. This is how BN is looked upon by an important group, the youngsters in their mid-twenties and below who find they, without means, must pay for the sins of their fathers and grandfathers.

Well trained, not caught in the BN belief that they owe it a living, jobless, and with no hope of one with each passing year, they begin to question. First ignored, in BN and Opposition, then isolated, their numbers grew. Every year about 10,000 unemployed graduates joined the ranks. Perhaps 200,000, possibly far more, graduates are now unemployed. Besides two million and more who are forced to live on their wits. No one knows how many, but the government insists it is far, far less. This is not information but a spin to win the argument. No one in government cares about it, until it becomes a political football for government and opposition to kick. But then as Mark Twain once said: Statistics, damn statistics and lies.

Policies are announced, often as an afterthought or a direct response to public or opposition questions to wriggle their way out of public scrutiny. When it comes to their own comfort, they do not stint. Parliament and state assemblies have become lucrative sinecures. Parliament and state asemblies insist the members are underpaid and gave themselves rises while exhorting the people to tighten belts, and allowed essential commodities, goods and services to rise. While cabinet ministers say the most outrageous and stupid things they can think of. It does not matter which minister: they do not know what they speak when they do.

The newspapers do not report parliamentary and state assembly proceedings as they once did: they must now fight for space with the other irrelevant news they carry. They have become large irrelevant as the elected representatives, and can gain attention only when the two quarrel. Both have to blame for this. But even the establishment begins to realise that they have an implacable enemy to contend: those who voted them in. The New Straits Times' recent attack on members of parliament is only the first. The MPs were stung to protest. Only one MP, Dato' Shahrir Samad, saw the danger. But his is a voice in the wilderness. He alone amongst the BN MPs sees this pointless confrontation as the start of something worse. He is right.

The Selangor state government has built, in stealth, for its executive committee ten luxury homes, a swimming pool and a club house in an exclusive enclave. It cost RM40 million said the DAP opposition member in the state assembly. No, it is only RM21 million, retorts the mentri besar, Dato' Seri Khir Toyo, and it is not for the executive councillors but for the senior state staff as well. He did not expect this secret project to hit the headlines, so he is economical with the truth. In other words, he lied. In the state assembly, to the people. The senior executive staff have official residences. Why do they need another? What happens to the old residences?

Since when did the government provide residences for the executive councillors, who gets an allowance in lieu, and the state officials either tied quarters or a rental allowance? You would recall that this was removed in the early years of Tun Mahathir Mohamed as prime minister so the valuable land often in the centre of town could be privatised to cronies of the establishment for a song. Civil servants were given cheap loans to own their own houses. The beneficiaries of the Selangor luxury homes all no doubt have private residences that befit their status. Contrast that with the modest home of the Kelantan mentri besar, Dato' Nik Aziz Nik Mat, where he has always lived, in a modest village on the outskirts of Kota Bharu, the state capital.

Dr Khir cannot leave well enough alone. His explanations did sound reasonable when the row broke. Not any more. He barred the press when the keys to the luxury homes were handed over in the weekend. He wanted to make a point. He is in charge and he would do as he liked. No one could nor would stop him. But then he has a penchant to shoot himself in the foot. Why was there this need for a ceremony? Could not the recipients be told to come by the state secretary's office and pick up they keys at their convenience? But this would have denied the state officials to waste time, and eat, at government expense. And this, in the present scheme of things, is more important than the mentri besar's face dragged through the mud.

Dato' Seri Khir must explain his actions, or face more pressure to remove him. He wants to be UMNO youth leader in 2007. He can forget it now. Politicians should know that when his own side finds fault with them, and he adds to that with his own, it is time to leave. Or be thrown out. Indeed, the longer he stays in office, the better for the opposition in the next general election. His own executive councillors plot behind his back to replace him.

He is not alone. Others are as free in spending government funds for personal pleasure. There are no checks and balances. How could there be when the prime minister will not move into his official residence in Putra Jaya without an expensive refit (RM20 million is the figure bandied about). Nor the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib to where Pak Lah now lives without an equally expensive and extensive renovations. This is in sharp contrast to Malaysia's first three prime ministers, who spent far less on their official residences, adjusted for inflation, than individual cabinet ministers and mentris besar and chief ministers on their first appointment these days.

Those in BN who spend do not understand or realise they are woodpeckers on the UMNO tree. Each action against the common weal redounds on, and weakens, UMNO. When the chips are down in BN, only UMNO matters. The other parties would, if given half a chance, distance themselves from UMNO. Some are prepared to sup with the devil – in this instance, the opposition parties – if their leaders could continue in office in the new regime. The BN, UMNO in particular, misses the woods for the trees. But the trees are badly cared for and even diseased.

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