MGG Pillai Commentary View

<< Previous || Next >>

For the National Front, the people do not matter

THE DEPUTY PRESIDENTS OF parties in the National Front, elected to office, are not liked by their presidents. In UMNO, Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, MCA, MIC, for example, the presidents believe they can ignore the membership. In MIC, the president goes one step further. He arranges so that the branches supporting the deputy president is struck off for the flimsiest of reasons, and rearrange these braches to be beholden to him. The deputy president, Dato' S. Subramaniam will not help the average member; in his interviews, he wants to succeed to the presidency by Buggins' turn, has no policy for its members, only wants to be president of MIC. Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu has already started. Those branches likely to be expelled has formed a new, irrelevant political party, MIC Baru. The news media reported it as a straight story, to show no doubt there is democracy in this.

But a check would have revealed this is nonsense. The Registrar of Societies would not approve a political party, even with a Baru added. In 1988, the Registrar of Societies had to bend the rules to give UMNO Baru the assets of the old UMNO, declared illegal by the courts. Of course, it went to the UMNO in power. It is only now that details of that decision are coming to light. UMNO the nationalist movement was replaced by UMNO the political party. But it has problems with the Malay community. The MIC Baru is dead before it started. It would not be given unless Dato' Seri Samy Vellu had give permission. Has he? But Dato' Seri Samy Vellu got the deputy president he does not want to say he had nothing to do with it. He is working overtime to ensure his nominee is elected the deputy president. But when political leaders do elaborate moves to have a man of their choice as deputy presidents, they will have reason to regret at leasure in retirement.

Tun Mahathir Mohamed appointed four deputy presidents – Tan Sri Musa Hitam, Tun Ghafar Baba, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Dato' Seri Abdullah Badawi – and one, Dato' Seri Abdullah Badawi, succeeded him. Today, Tun Mahathir spends his waking hours trying to remove that man from his job. But even his former supporters in the civil service and business men have deserted him. The Malaysian is given a choice between the prime minister who has the future in front of him and a prime minister known for what he had done in the past. In Malaysia, the man of the hour is the custodian of all that is good in Malaysia. Tun Mahathir's expired when he resigned two years ago. But politics in UMNO is still conducted at the top. The leaders think the decision they made can be forced upon the members. It is not only UMNO leaders believe that, all National Front party leaders believe it.

Going hand in hand are the mainstream media. They know which side their bread is buttered. He may be prime minister once but not know. He may have once appointed its editor-in-chief. But not now. They will not run him down as they would an opposition leader, but he would be regarded in the news columns as second only to the Prime Minister, any criticisms he has of the Prime Minister would not be printed, a fate he shares with the opposition leaders. Malaysia may be a democracy, at least we have regular elections, but the elections rules and officials are so thought of that they represent a hidden agenda. It is never revealed. But that is challenged now. Even the chairman of the Elections Commission now admits that the elections were not fair. The people who believed in the national movement do not now believe in the political party, whatever is name. Even its former presidents died outside of UMNO. Its former presidents never joined UMNO the political party.

I have discussed UMNO and its travails much more than I would have. But what happens in UMNO would happen it the National Front parties. The only difference is that what happens in the National Front parties do not affect the residents of this country, but what happens in UMNO would. What happens in the National Front parties will create whirlpools in the pond, but nothing more. But its members would not vote for the National Front in the elections. These parties allow UMNO to carry out policies which affect them. Dato' Seri Samy Vellu now asks MIC members to tell him what ails the community, so that he could bring it up. After 25 years as MIC president, he knows not what ails the community?

But the National Front behaves arrogantly because it believes it is unbeatable. So the President of Roumania, Mr Nicolai Ceasescu, thought. He spoke to the crowd from his Palace window in Bucharest. It was well received, as it would be, until from one corner a criticism was expressed. Stung, he asked, who said that? Then another section of the crowd expressed its criticism, and soon the whole crowd was baying for his blood. Three days later, he and his wife were shot dead in a cellar by his former security staff. I am not saying this would happen to the National Front. The National Front, particularly UMNO, got so paranoid, when the people of Malaysia rose against the government when it tried to destroy Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, after first sacking him from his government job. He was humiliated, jailed, restricted from political office, and now there is intense talk within UMNO whether he should be admitted.

He has made no application to return to UMNO, is very much an opposition figure, and UMNO, conversely, is frightened of that prospect. UMNO assumed he would, and looks for ways to prevent him joining. Acres of newsprint carried stories of UMNO's worries and doubts about that eventuality. But no one from the mainstream press asked him whether he would. Whilst in prison, he thought up the idea of a separate political group for the educated women. The opposition parties were arguing the merits of it, when UMNO ran with it, and brought about the most useful political development since independence. But it will lose that advantage, as its leaders are appointed, not elected, and the opposition parties now realise they cannot ignore it. The National Front has only one main: to remain in power for ever. It ignores the warts within it, but if it is not careful, they would swamp it. So the formation of MIC Baru is irrelevelant. Neither can it be formed without the MIC's knowledge. The Registrar of Societies will ask MIC Baru to get a letter. Any other decision can only be possible with MIC support.

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