MGG Pillai Commentary View

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An 18-year-old shoots the BN in the foot; the opposition screams in pain

AN 18-YEAR-OLD BOY, Ahmad Hafizal Ahmad Fauzi, is the unlikely victim of an elaborate plan to brainwash Malaysian youths to support the National Front (BN) for all time. On May 10, the Kangar magistrate's court fines him RM600 or two weeks jail for missing the mandatory three-month national service training. The DPP demanded an exemplary punishment to warn teenagers of their fate if they defy calls for national service. With a total family income less than RM600 a month, to which he contritbutes a quarter, he could not pay and went to jail. The Perlis mentri besar, Dato' Seri Shahidan Kassim, ever on the look out for cheap publicity and with an eye to the political havoc the opposition PAS could cause, in the state and nationwide, paid the fine. The Attorney-General, who authorised the prosecution, now promises to revise the sentence if "what the boy says is true". The exemplary punishement turns out a damp squib.

The investigations were shoddy. The boy should have attended national service; he did not; he is guilty, and therefore, a criminal. More than that, he should be an exemplar to put fear into other 18-year-olds who could not, by circumstances like extreme poverty, enter national service. If the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Ghani Patail, tells the truth, the 4,269 who evaded national service must be brought to court – and soon. If the national interest demanded that Ahmad Hafizal be punished, should not politicians like Dato' Seri Shaidan Kassim be too for defying the national interest? Or that as a BN leader, he is exempt?

But the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, insists the boy is to blame: he should have asked to defer or be exempt from national service; he should have explained his predicament to the police, if not the magistrate. He did not. He must pay the price. The law, after all, must be respected. "I wish to state that the laws of our country do not differentiate between individuals. Attendance at the national service training programme is mandatory by law and everyone selected must attend," he thundred. Besides, he adds "I'm sure that if he had explained his family situation, the National Service department or the prosecutors would have been sympathetic towards him." He expects a frightened 18-year-old from the poorest of the poor, who is frightened of authority of any kind, to argue his case before officious police men and unsympathetic prosecutors. In other words, frightened 18-year-olds, when arrested, should behave as corrupt business men and politicians, with a battery of lawyers, when charged.

This case hit the public eye because the government wanted a diversion from the political mess from the 2004 general election, the expulsion of Indonesian migrant workers, the Anwar Ibrahim affair, bilateral issues with Singapore, divisions in UMNO threatening the body politic, anti-corruption drive. It got that, and a black eye. And more if the others shirkers are not charged. The law, in Dato' Seri Najib's considered view, should take its course. If Malaysians are to believe that, the attorney-general must charge all national service shirkers in court. The BN government, which swears it believes in the primacy of the law, should insist on it. If it does not, it is the BN that would lose out.

For national service training is to BN's benefit. It is the brainchild of Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, that once well-regarded DAP MP who exchanged principle for untold wealth and BN cronydom. He argued for national service, with weapons training. His good friend, the deputy prime minister, or rather his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, thought it a good idea. It was accepted with alacrity, and rushed through. It is an ill-kept secret that the good lady – and, lest we forget, Tan Sri Lee – has a decent share in providing uniforms and other necessities for the national service trainees. The cronies of the establishment got into the act for there was RM800 million to go around every year. If you look closely at its suppliers, you could trace it to UMNO leaders and satraps and, occasionally, other BN leaders. Its finances are secret. The latest budget estimates do not provide for this RM800 million. When asked about it in Parliament, it was blithely told it is there somewhere. If it is a recurrent annual expenditure, it should be stated clearly. But it would not: its escalating finances must be kept secret.

The original plan included weapons training, but that was ruled out not for fear of teenagers trained in weapons running wild but that there were no safe depots to house them. When a group could raid with ease and seize weapons from an army camp under tight security near the Thai border, how secure could an ill-protected armoury be? The three-month training makes no sense. Nothing short of a year would. The armed forces should have taken over the training, but that cut out those who make much money from it. So, it is half-baked trainers, ill-paid and often not at all, are at the cutting edge of brainwashing and shepherding impressionable Malaysian youngsters into blind support for the BN. The aim is the Malay youth, who show their contempt for UMNO openly, but the other racial party leaders also face the same contempt from their youth. So, the programme is multi-racial.

The unstated aim of national service is to brainwash the youth into supporting the BN at all cost. All it has done is to drive people away from the BN. If it means business and wants to set an example, it should put on trial sons of Tan Sris, Dato's, privilege who evaded national service, not those whose families would starve if they went. But the BN, and the attorney-general, dare not. The law then would not take its course, whatever Dato' Seri Najib thinks. The scheme is in shambles. It would go the way of other schemes to instil nationalism in Malaysian youth.

National service was introduced in Malaysia in 1962, amdist Indonesia's confrontation, and all between 18 and 25 had to report. I did. Thirty years later, I stumbled into the National Service office, in the bowels of the bureaucracy, with a skeleton staff, swatting flies. I found out that in my sixties I was legally bound to report to it every time I left the country! A decade later, there was the rukun tetangga, the brainchild of an UMNO politician, which required householders to patrol their neighborhood. A good idea, but it lapsed as time went on.

But the system has a new lease of life. We had a makeshift 'pondok', where we met, and gossiped, before we started our rounds. Now the rukun tetangga office in Brickfields, where I live, is a gleaming structure costing a few hundred thousand ringgit to house a system that disappeared a quarter of a century ago. It serves no useful purpose, but I understand there is a minister responsible for this non-existent scheme. This will be the fate of national service. It is now used by the Pak Lah camp to put Dato' Seri Najib in a spot. Where once it was bureaucratic inertia that kept long-dead programmes on the books, today it is money. it is all about how to transfer public cash into private pockets. It is as simple as that. The BN knows it well but is accident-prone.

The opposition is clue-less, and does not put BN through the hoops. The BN has handed it a political issue it could run with. It did not. Where was PAS and Keadilan when this broke out? When did they visit the family and protest this gross injustice to Ahmad Hafizal? The BN did. Bernama reported last night Hafizal's mother understands why her son is in jail, and calls on Malaysian youth to take her son's predicament to heart, and not skip national service. Another instance when the opposition snatches defeat from the jaws of victory. PAS, which is quite sensitive to issues like this, failed in its bailliwick. Why? There is not a beep from Parti Keadilan Rakyat. The DAP raised the broader issue of national service and its finances in parliament but little else. Malaysians who want a change to the BN are let down by an equally accident-prone opposition. When all is said and done, the Ahmad Hafizal affair forced both BN and opposition intto a corner, but while BN walked away from with some dignity, the opposition tries harder to remain where they are – in the corner.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamxy.com