MGG Pillai Commentary View

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Divide and rule

THE NATIONAL FRONT PASSES laws to affect nearly half the population, and no Malaysian is concerned at the time when their kind is affected by it. The Malaysian Chinese Association, the Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, the Malaysian Indian Congress and other parties in the Front other that UMNO would rather not talk about it, and look the other way. Two cases in recent weeks show that it is done. A Malaysian, who was born an Indian Hindu and scaled Mount Everest in his time, was buried a Muslim, after the civil court decided it could not interfere in what should have been other court. But because she is not a Muslim, she could not go to the Sharia court for justice. So the Indian is buried a Muslim, with his family not allowed to take part: the religiious affairs department saw to that. The second case involved women, albeit Muslim, and they objected to their denigration at the last minute. But the two cases are seen in water tight compartments, and so the official actions against one is not seen as affecting the other. So, the Muslim women are up in arms, and the Hindus are up in arms, but seperately. If it is this way, the National Front government is not worried: they would be elected by these groups in the next election or byelection. But there is a link between the two: it shows the National Front reduces views of Malaysias by attacking individual components, knowing full well that parties in the National Front would not object, as it has not in the two cases, and Malaysians will vote the National Front in the next time around.

Why does this happen? The National Front government uses its powers to keep the opposition diffused and weak. The opposition political parties, even Parti Sa Islam or PAS, feels it is more important to survive than make sure the needs of Malaysians are taken care of. The DAP has asked the Yang Dipertuan Agung not to sign the bill, but it happily allowed the Lower House to pass the same act in September. It now have jumped into the action, but it has done after the National Front women senators had raised their cudgels. The mainstream newspapers now find creative reasons to explain whether the act was necessary. What the women did has changed the political landscape once again. The National Front has to look over its shoulders - now to see how the women would react to what it has in mind. In the 1950s and 1960s, it had the Labour Front to check it in Parliament, but it destroyed it by banning the Chinese group in the front, and made sure the Parti Rakyat Socialis Malaysia was not elected to Parliament. The PSRM has broken into two, the Parti Rakyat Malaysia has merged with the Keadilan party to form Keadilan Rakyat Malaysia. The other wing, Parti Socialis Malaysia, fights a lonely path, by believing in a better Malaysia and not elected seats, and issues statements on government intentions, and spread their outpourings to Malaysians up and down the country. They are too small to make an impact. But what they say is taken seriously. It is afraid of the Malaysian Communist Party, and would not allow its long term leader is not allowed into Malaysia, as he can under the peace treaty, and has taken legal action to allow him to. Its views affect the Chinese Malaysian, whatever the Chinese parties in the National Front think or say or do.

In the other case, the National Front government has passed a law disallowing half the population from going to one of its court systems. The civil courts told the wife of Lance Corporal Moorthy that it cannot hear her case, said in effect could not go to the Sharia courts, therefore her husband had to be buried a Muslim. She had no standing in the matter and had to allow the religious affairs department to bury him as a Muslim. The Indians, particularly the Hindus, are up in arms at this 'gross injustice'. The Malaysian Indian Congress, which should have taken the cudgels on behalf of the wife, would rather not. The Peoples' Progressive Party would rather blame National Front politicians for bribery in local councils than get involved in this religious tug-of-war. They know fully well the people would vote the National Front in at the next election or byelection. So why should they get involved. The Chinese and those of Sarawak and Sabah do not want to get involved. So it becomes a women's issue or an Indian issue, and the others stay away.

This is now the National Front would like matters be. When a point of view is argued, the National Front must be told that they would vote against it in an election, and take steps to do so. When more than half the electorate are women, the National Front would sit up and take notice. When the Indian Hindus have a beef, they must make it clear they will vote against the National Front in future if the problem is not solved. Islam is the state religion. One should not deny that. But if that religion is used to denigrate the non-Muslims, and the government agencies are used to enforce that, every Malaysian, including it seems many Malays, must take heed. The Mykad, which replaced the old identity card, has Islam printed on those who practice the Islamic faith, but not of others. Hindus are listed blank, Christians are listed as Buddhists. And the religion is not list in print. It is an arduous process to find out what is written, and the day I went to get my MyKad, the reader was faulty, and many went home disappointed. It is any wonder that many have bought these readers to know what is written about them in the MyKad. Was Corporal Moorthy's change of religion listed in the front of his Mykad? If it was not, then he was buried in the wrong place!

The National Front behaves as it does, keeping its opposition weak and defused. It is up to the opposition to see through this, and act accordingly. But it will and has not. As we have seen in the case of Muslim women and Corporal Moorthy. The others are not involved. But that is changing. In the past, the only people allowed to register new voters were the Election Commission and the National Front, especially UMNO. Many did not bother to vote because of this political party involvement. Now, however, the National Party has found to its horror that four million Malaysians have not bothered to register. It wants them to. But unless it involves the opposition parties and any group willing to register the voters, those who have not would not register. With the National Front breaking at the seams - the membership stating their opposition to the leadership openly, the groups in the Party at loggerheads, in UMNO, the top not agreeing to the bottom, the self-interest groups within not getting along with the leaders, for instance - they need all the help they can. In the next election, the National Front would be voted in, but most analysts believe it would face intense opposition in 2012 or 2017. The National Front leadership is in crisis. So it needs all the help it can. But that help cannot be easily got.

Unless the various disparate groups get together for a common purpose in challenging the National Front, they would not succeed. These groups would insist, to the National Front's pleasure, that they will only be involved in what they fight for and not in politics. But they will ensure that they will fail in what they fight for. But if the groups used what has happened in recent days for a larger purpose, there is hope. There is not much of that around. The Chinese would not be involved in an Indian matter. The men would not be involved in a women's matter. As long as Malaysians think that way, it is easy for the National Front to divide and rule. The Malaysians are concerned about their narrow interests. They would never get out of their narrow selves until it is too late. In the Internet, the Indians groups discuss Corporal Moothy's predicament, as if no other issue exists; and the women groups discuss the denigration of women. Some Malaysian political parties have taken the cudgels on behalf of the women, but they slept through when they had a chance. It had to do with the general feeling that on matters Islamic, no political party, including those in the National Front, would take part, or even take an interest. If they had not taken that informal ruling, matters would not have reached this stage now.

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