MGG Pillai Commentary View

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Man proposes, God disposes

THE FORMER PRIME MINISTER, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, 79, is rushed to the United States after doctors at the Institiut Jantung Negara (National Heart Institute) ruled out a bypass for the second time. He had a heart attack about Christmas and left, according to sources, "at the end of 2005 or early 2006". Given his age, and his inclement health, the doctors here ruled out a second bypass; he had his first done in 1988. This would effectively rule him out from active politics for at least three months. This would affect the fate of the prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, his son-in-law and the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak. If he comes back, it is a bonus for Dato' Seri Najib; if he does not, for Pak Lah and his son-in-law, Mr Khairy Jamaluddin. Tun Mahathir coming into active politics in 2005 has forced Pak Lah to cancel his plans for a cabinet reshuffle; all Tun Mahathir's men still in Pak Lah's cabinet were going to be axed. But Tun Mahathir met these men for his own post-Cabinet meeting at the KLCC every Wednesday.

Pak Lah did not want want those dropped from his cabinet go to Tun Mahathir; so, he could not reshuffle the cabinet yet. He should have reshuffled his cabinet immediately after his swept into power earlier this year. It does not matter now when he reshuffles his Cabinet; he loses lustre when he does it. He took the line of least resistance, and adopted his predecessor's cabinet as his own. But with UMNO divided, that was not wise. Pak Lah took over with much goodwill, but frittered it away by making statements he did not mean, barking at policy lapses instead of correcting them, taking no action on Malay head of government companies who had brought the companies to be rescued. No head of Bank Bumiputra has been punished for bankrupting Bank Bumiputra, but the government rescuing it four times from bankruptcy. More than 90 per cent of government guarantees of about $20 billion was to keep its companies afloat.

But he has had a rough year. He had to watch over his shoulder to see what Tun Mahathir is dong, whether he likes it or not what his son-in-law, Mr Khairy Jamaluddin, is doing at a time when his wife was dying of cancer. Malaysian Prime Ministers assume the world owes them a living, particularly in Malaysia, and the newspapers, which the National Front controls, carry official statements long after the public knows otherwise. This secrecy also makes him look foolish and stupid which and when he is not. He does not, it is believed by all and sundry, rule the country, but is driven by his son-in-law to do so. Many in politics believe this. Tun Mahathir returned to the political fray early in 2005 because of this. He thinks he made a bad choice in making Pak Lah as his successor, after he had his deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, arrested and had him beaten to a pulp. Some police promotions were made, before his retirement. who would stalk him but he cannot now expect that.

His 22 years a prime minister should be remembers for putting Malaysia on the map economically, but he will do down in history as the man who arrested Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. The rumour that Dato' Seri Anwar would be brought back into UMNO frightened him. But it appears it was not Pak Lah's suggestion but his son-in-law's. UMNO General Assembly last year decided on a resolution, brought by Tun Mahathir's men, that would have anyone who left UMNO, for whatever reason, would be a traitor and could not ever rejoin. It was meant for Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, but three of the six presidents – Dato' Sir Onn bin Jaffar, Tengku Abdul Rahman, Tun Hussein Onn – had resigned from UMNO in their lifetime, with the Tengku and Tun Hussein actively working against it and died outside it.

The UMNO they were presidents of is not the UMNO ot today. The UMNO of old was a nationalist movement, the UMNO of today was formed a political party after the high courts banned the UMNO of old, through UMNO's lawyer making a suggestion in court – and the judge warned him of it – that it be declared illegal. UMNO could be now defeated, as India's Congress Party was in 1976 after it transformed into a political party in 1967. The Malay opposition and that many young Malays consider joining a political party other than UMNO will have no qualms about criticising UMNO. Besides, UMNO itself is divided. When newspapers go on a witchhunt on the deputy prime minister, he is never given space in the newspapers to argue his side of the case, but whatever is reported , to the reader is an UMNO divided.

The New Straits Times seems to have realised this, and take to criticising the deputy prime minister obliquely. The other papers, owned mostly by other parties in the National Front, are not so subtle. And they would not be. The Star was suspended in 1987 for a breach of the rules, and two senior editors of the Chinese Press had been suspended yesterday for their resourcefulness which conflicted the official position. But no one talks now of a minister going to China to apologise for nude squat by a Chinese national, when the spin now is that it is a Malay girl after all. Even the DAP MP, Ms Teresa Kok, who brought the video tape of the nude squat to Parliament, now says it was a Malay girl after all.

No one believes it of course. Why was not the Home Minister, Dato' Azmi Khalid, told that the girl was Malay before he left for China to apologise? He made Malaysia look stupid. Similarly, why has not the chairman of Putera UMNO, Dato' Azeez Abdul Rahman, said he was not caught in the vice raid at the Holiday Villa? We have everyone in authority saying he was not involved, not he. But it is probably too late. No one would believe him, as no one believes Pak Lah about his proposed cabinet changes. Those holding offices in the government and UMNO will not talk to the press unless they want to. Given the manner in which they are given prominence in Malaysian newspapers – the prime minister will be headlined in all newspapers if he should say that black is white; and the newspaper that does not publish the news would be suspended – that those in power say what they like, even stupid statements, knowing that they would not be contradicted.

But this is a disability now. Malaysia is top of the world because there is no opposition. If there is, as China did, it goes into a tailspin. The officials look for scapegoats, at least to prove them right, and get it wrong. Several public commissions on the police have been conducted so far, but the only result about these commissions is a pay rise for the police. And the message that a nude squat is all right, so long as you get a Malaysian women to do it. But if the policeman can do as he likes, the police proudly says that nude squats are the norm for minor police offences, no matter what the law says, this lawlessness spreads to other departments and divisions in the public service. UMNO will find that it cannot hold its own, if everything else it controls is going haywire.

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