MGG Pillai Commentary View

<< Previous || Next >>

The National Front is confused

THE PEOPLE IN POWER are confused. They have not realised the people challenge them at every turn. The post-information age, which is now, is as destructive to the people in power as the Industrial Age was when it began in 1832. That enabled the rulers to ride rough shod over the people, who found their unique ways to confront that. What happens in society now was what happened before the Industrial Age. But the people will not succeed unless by intellectuals. In Malaysia, the National Front is still in power, since it attained power in 1955, but is worried at this development. The King, who had agreed to officiate a gathering, was told by officials in the Prime Minister's Department not to attend. It got intellectuals at the hall angry. The National Front showed weakness which it could not control. This meeting was organised by dissident UMNO members, and attended by all Malays, intellectuals, from PAS and Parti Keadilan Rakyat, and who used to be senior figures in the ancien regime. It was better organised to challenge than the reformasi movement of former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Annuar Ibrahim. The reformasi movement failed because though it was a ground revolt most of the intellectuals stayed away. Even then it caused fright in the National Front. The intellectuals in the National Front realised what could happen if it had succeeded, and fear is the result. The National Front changed its policies, trying to solve some of the issues the reformasi movement reformed. But the reformasi movement has fallen into the doldrums after Dato' Seri Annuar Ibrahim was released from prison. Now by and large it second guesses what the reformasi movement had in mind and looks over its shoulders at what the reformasi movement is doing. But the reformasi movement lit a light for others to follow.

The National Front is therefore paranoid at any talk of rebellion. The opposition is weak, and the National Front can blow rings around it, in parliament, state assemblies and out. That used to suffice in the past. Not now. The people have got brave and demand answers at unusual times. They question government agencies for the ills they do. The government tells lies, and the truth comes out in commissions on inquiries, and under oath. Malaysians are now told that the Home minister, Dato' Azmi Khalid, when to Being this monthj to apologise to the Chinese government for the police illtreating a Malay. Predictably, he said two weeks later he did not go to apologise and that the visit was planned much earlier! But the Malaysian media had reports, several from Beijing, he did just that. He has been telling untruths ever since. In the past he might have succeeded. Those in power believed, rightly, that people have short memories, and only what is said now is believed. But the people are being energised. The more perceptive among National Front, and UMNO, leaders realise this. But the political decision is to ramrod its way so that the people are frightened. But the people are less frightened now. Telling the King not to attend the forum was a sign of weakness. It does not know that after 50 years in power more people, including the intellectuals in the National Front, are against it. Ironically, the rulers are now with the people.

The people will not rebel unless they have to. The people of England did not like what they had to pay and do in the 13th century until a lord, Simon de Montfort, rallied them to his side and made King John sign the Magna Carta. Napolean had he not the people on his side when he became Emperor of France. King Louis XVI and Queen Antoinette would not have been executed in France if not the nobles and others got the people on their side. The US independence would not have been possible if the people, already suffering from the exactions of the British, rallied to the side of the intellectuals and lanlords. The poor has not succeeded, if they are not led by intellectuals. Castro remains in power since 1959 because he kept the people on his side. India would have not got its independence had not the people joined the intellectuals and the rich. Pandit Jawarharlah Nehru, Mohandas Karam Chand Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose were intellectuals and landlords. Mangal Pandey fired the first shot, as the new film shows, but Indian independence did not come until a century later, and after the people had been led these intellectuals and landlords.

The rebels against British rule in Malaya came from the titled: Dato' Bahaman, Mat Kilau, Maharaja Lela, Dato' Sagor were on the royal court. They failed because they could not get the people on their side in fighting the British, who hanged most of them. Our officials did not bother until Mat Kilau was found to be alive. There were intense discussions in the 20th century whether he ought to be given a dato'ship. I knew his son-in-law and daughter, and have stayed with them when I was in the capital he was Malaysian ambassador. He later became an official at the Organisation of Islamic Conference when Tengku Abul Rahman, Malaysia's first prime minister, was secretary- general. But until Mat Kilau was found alive, the Malaysian people, if ever, did not know the connection. Both are dead now, his widow died in a car crash. The people will not move unless led. UMNO was founded in the Istana in Johore Bahru, Dato' Sir Onn bin Jaffar its founding president, was a cousin of the sultan, and mentri besar of Johore. (His mother's sister, both Circassions from Turkey, was the wife of Sultan Abubakar, grandfather of the present Sultan.) Many of the earlier leaders of UMNO were from the palace. It is only the last two presidents, Tun Mahathir Mohamed and Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, were not from the aristocratic class, although Tun Mahathir's mother was from the Kedah royal court.

UMNO today rewrites history, by insisting it was formed by the people, that the rulers were not involved. This is pure spin. There would not have been UMNO, which was formed in 1946 to protest against the Malayan Union proposals reducing the sultans to mere digits, and later on were given independence by the British. Its first prime was Tengku Abdul Rahman, a scion of the Royal House of Kedah. It is a sign of the times that Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, who held the heriditary title of Dato' Shahbandar Pahang after his father died in 1976, clings to "Dato' Seri", latter day invention given or bought by people who think they are noble. They were cabinet ministers in the past who were holders of the heriditary titles of the Sultans they were loyal to. Without the rulers, there would be no UMNO, which insists they are an irrelevant appendage. But the Sultan of Johore, when Yang di Pertuan Agung, went to the pulpit at the National Mosque unannounced, told a brief history of how UMNO was founded in his palace, and ordered the then Prime Minister, Dato' Seri (now Tun) Mahathir Mohamed, to shake hands and 'minta maaf' and let bygones be bygones with his then deputy, Dato' (now Tan Sri) Musa Hitam. They were not on speaking terms then, but they did.

The present day UMNO, with its self-proclaimed peoples' roots, finds its policies affecting the people to its disadvantage. It is fearful that some of their intellectuals or leaders will desert it and join them. Tun Mahathir Mohamed is against the UMNO leadership. But he might now. He represents the old turks in UMNO. Pak Lah represents the young turks mainly because he relies on his son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin, and others in their 30s who had graduated from Oxford and Cambridge. Pak Lah is afraid that that opposed to his advisers might join the old turks, even those who were in England at the same time. The opposition in UMNO now have both leaders and a platform, and would get the support of the people if the young turks in Pak Lah's camp insist on browbeating those who disagree, rather than talk to them. What is happening now was spelt out in "The Animal Farm" nearly 60 years ago!

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