MGG Pillai Commentary View

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The silly season in UMNO puts non-Malays and non-Muslims in fear

THIS IS THE SILLY season in UMNO. Party elections are about to begin. No campaigning is allowed. All candidates must stand on their own standing, which should not, in theory, be added to with open campaigning or issuing of election manifestos and the like. The branches and divisions should select the right leaders without being subjected to old fashioned electioneering. It need not be said that corruption in whatever form is banned. But where there is a will, there is a way. The UMNO election monitors view campaigning in the broadest possible sense. By this rule, those holding public office cannot be prevented from making statements about what they do or are in charge of. So, the agricultural minister can talk about his portfolio but he falls foul if he were to touch on politics or trade or whatever. The neophyte or anyone holding no official position is in a bind: he has no official reason to campaign indirectly as those holding office could. It is they who often get into trouble for campaigning.

In recent weeks, in the runup to the UMNO divisional elections, aspirants in public office find creative ways to make themselves known to the voters. They have to do this because they have, in the past, ignored this aspect of politicking, and are caught flat-footed when the divisional elections come around. The mainstream newspapers, radio and television are quick to highlight what these worthies are said, on the grounds that what they say is news. Often it is. But these days it begins to take a confrontational stance. These worthies must attract attention to the baser instincts of UMNO members that will make them look good even to the PAS member. Their aim is not to defend government policy but to hijack it for their own political future. In the old days, say 30 or so years ago, what they said made sense, reflected government policy, and had a national base.

Not now. The failure of government policies, the BN political arrogance, the irreparable split in UMNO, the divide that separates the leaders from the members have led to those in public office ignoring that they represent a multiracial government and opt for a radical racial and religious platform. This is so blatant this year that the deputy minister in the prime minister publicly called for a ban on all entertainment during Muslim prayer times. This he said has been policy and he was making it known to a wider public. There has been no response – to be fair, that response would come only when reporters ask questions, but in matters of Islam, few would dare – from either the prime minister or deputy prime minister, the non-Malay coalition partners in the BN or even the non-Muslim religious leaders. The most charitable explanation I have heard is that what is said is for political reasons and should not be taken seriously.

The point is missed. If policy is made – and this is policy in the making, however presented, for none would dare challenge it when it comes for discussion – as an extension of political campaigning, the consequences for the non-Malay and non-Muslim are severe. For what is said is counter to official BN policy and its stated intentions in government. When the constitutional power of the rulers is whittled down unconstitutionally – as happened in 1983 – what is there to prevent it happening now? No senior BN leader, in UMNO or its coalition partners, have said anything about it. It is a matter of time before it becomes law.

What this deputy minister said is no different from another. The deputy internal security minister, Dato' Noh Omar, claimed at first the authorities were investigating a militant group similar to the al-Qaeda linked Jema'ah Islamiyah. But he shot his mouth off. He did not like what appeared in the newspapers the next day. Malaysia is trying a neutral line between US interest in fundamentalist Muslim groups and open support for Washington's war on terror, denying whever it can that Malaysia is a hotbed of Muslim fundamentalists. And now a deputy minister in the internal security minister whose minister is the Prime Minister no less reveals there is indeed an extremist religious sect. He had to rush and deny he said what he said. But in his view this is a great success for him: he got two bites of the cherry when others who can must be satisfied with only one!

But when those in authorities play fast and loose with official policy, and those who should do not resist it, it is a matter of time that UMNO alone makes policy. That is already a reality. The BN leaders insist they are consulted and decisions are by consensus. If we take them at their word, then their role is suspect. For this means that they agreed to the decision of the Islamic development unit of the Prime Minister's department to ban entertainment and other functions during Muslim prayer time. But all we have is silence from them too. The religious leaders are not bothered about the larger issues of restrictions of the rights of individuals when deputy ministers for a political purpose decide that during Muslim prayer.

But in this silly season, all in public office hoping to be elected to the UMNO divisions play fast and loose with official policy. Or they come out with asinine statements, like that from the women, family and community development minister, Dato' Seri Shahrizat Jalil, who advised people mothers of out-of-wedlock babies not to abandon them but deposit them at welfare departments instead. She finds an excuse to comment but her eye is on the UMNO divisional elections. Other ministers, deputy ministers, parliamentary secretaries, heads of government-linked companies who need to be elected will in the coming months make silly, irrelevant or frightening revelations of policy. It can be described as the rantings of politicians who need to be elected. But when those who should not do stretch into these areas, it causes a chain reaction that could not be stopped.

For this lurch into racist and irreligious rants ignore a larger problem the BN faces. UMNO espoused Islam as its main plank, with Islam Hadhari at its centre, because Malays who would normally join the party do not; instead they go to PAS, Parti Keadilan Rakyat, or multiracial parties like the DAP. This coincides with the general belief in the Malay ground that the BN promises since UMNO's founding in 1946 has transformed them into an underclass in their own country. They are unemployable, inward looking, arrogant, mis-matched, poorly educated, that nearly 80,000 graduates cannot find work. Another 10,000 join them every year. The degree is seen as an end in itself. When excellence and high standards should have been the focus of Malaysian universities, the aim quickly became to pass every Malay who went through their portals.

Once they could all be absorbed in the public services – which still remains the largest avenue for employment of the unemployable graduates – but not now. The public services are bloated beyond belief, standards have declined so sharply that it brings terror to the bravest heart to deal with the overblown bureaucracy. And it can no longer continue to absorb them. The private sector does not want them either. The reason given is they do not speak English, but what they do not tell you is they turn out to be square pegs in round holes. The Indian graduate is marginalised even more. He is stopped at every turn if he does not ask the MIC to help, and that help comes with a price many no longer are prepared to pay. It is now a rule of choice amongst Chinese and Indians that they opt for the private sector or stand on their own feet.

Now that this happens, the flaws of the New Economic Policy are clearer. Force fed into an official dependency, they are now asked to make their own futures. The old promises are now forgotten, and the baby is dropped on the street and told to fend for itself. The Malay youngster is pushed into the market place with no support. He seeks it in religion. Hence if he wants to enter politics, he moves to PAS and not UMNO, as it would have been even two decades earlier. Since PAS is a theocratic-based political party, it became a natural haven. This is not unusual only to Malaysia. When political promises are not kept, the people drift towards religion. The most dramatic of this in recent years is how the Iranian monarchy became a fundamentalist theocracy. The tremendous development that accrued from its oil wealth ignored the mass of people, with power and wealth concentrated in the ruling coterie. The poor drifted to religion. Then there was no turning back. The similarities of the Shah's Iran and BN's Malaysia is eerily similar. Few in UMNO or BN grasp it. The roller coaster has just begun to roll.

[This is my column in Harakah, the PAS organ, for its first fortnightly issue in June (01-15 June 20050 and published today, 25 May 2005]

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