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In Malaysia's Parliament, what a minister should wear is more important than the Ninth Malaysia Plan

THE NINTH MALAYSIA PLAN causes the spending of about RM200 billion. Yet this is not the major topic in Parliament. A minister's work dress is. It does not matter if the Ninth Malaysia Plan is discussed as it should, so long as the minutea of the minister's clothes is. So Dato' Rais Yatim is forced to explain why he wears the clothes he does. It shows the utter irrelevance of Parliament in today's Malaysia. What the executive says goes. It does not matter what Parliament says or does. The executive administration of elected officials in Malaysia has ignored Parliament since 1970, after the racial riots of the previous year. But that is par for the course. In Malaysia, Singapore, and in almost every country that was once a colonial territory. Professor Cyril Northcote Parkinson, of the University of Malaya in Singapore, in the 1950s, wrote of this phenomenon in his Parkinson's Law, where he described this tendency, Where the matter to be spent runs in the millions, it was settled expeditiously. But when the subject matter concerned the tea lady, it would be discusssed for hours.

Modern government, which keeps Parliament as one would a faithful dog, does what it likes, knowing full well that Parliament would come to its aid when it is necessary. It is so in Malaysia and Singapore, but also in Thailand, France, Italy and many other countries. The Western countries, notably the United States, encouraged this isolation of the elected from the electors, so that these governments would be at their beck and call. Today's governments in Third world countries are not independent, for it can rule as it likes but if that legislation falls foul of bilateral or multilateral treaties with other countries, it is to that extent void. It is made worse when all this behind-the-scenes negotiations are kept hidden from the people. The minister for international trade and industry, Datin Rafidah Aziz, does not tells Malaysians she signed with other countries.

To top it all, defamation law is used to prevent journalists and politicians. A minister's assistant threatened this month a journalist with defamation if she persisted in asking the minister about his mistress and the house in which she is kept in another town. A business man, a prime minister's hanger on, sued me for defamation, a case which continues to this day, and now, with his lawyer, tries by hook or by crook to make me a bankrupt. But he is nobody now. He cannot survive long if he does not get any government contracts. But it is a different prime minister now who has his own hangers on, who continue to amass wealth while threatening all and sundry with defamation and the law if they write about it. But when a business man uses the law to buy respect, he cannot be any good. The banks will not sue him when they are riding high, and this is assumed by the business man that he is a "leading business man of international repute". But not when his patron is no more prime minister.

One man now threatening law suits got to be extremely rich because he is close to the present Prime Minister, Pak Lah. He is worth about a billion dollars, still in his thirties, has no job worth talking about, unless getting a commission for selling government assets is an occupation. When Pak Lah is no more Prime Minister, this man will not be get any more money from the public purse. Each Prime Minister has his cronies, who must make their money soon or lose out. To do this, he must ignore the ground, and behave as if he is to the manor born. For every man who behaves thus under the present prime minister, I can show you dozens who once were but are now forgotten, not doing well, or bankrupt. It is bad for the prime minister at this time because the people on the ground rebel at policies and laws made in their name but which excuses the coterie.

The people are sheep everywhere, in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand. Nepal, France, Italy, Great Britain, America. For a while they can be led by the nose. But in Thailand, France, Italy, America they cannot be now. They forced the governments in their countries into a crisis (in America and Nepal, the government is in a tailspin) and have fallen. The European newspapers do not want to link Italy with Thailand, but what caused Mr Berlusconi to fall is what fell Mr Thaksin Shinawatra. If a business man becomes a politician by using the techniques of the market place, he will be successful for a while, as Mr Berlusconi and Mr Thaksin has found out to their cost. They are kept in good odour with the middle class in their countries with slick public relations. But this became a farce after a while since no body then believed its message.

Any attempt to hijack a country would not succeed as it could a company. Thaksin sold his telecommunications empire to Singapore government's secretive vehicle, Temasek Holdings. This brought a protest from the people, especially the middle class, over taxes, which later expanded to a foreign country taking control of an important segment of the country's economy. Taxes were not paid in this transaction, as it need not be, but it was the Prime Minister's company, and that added fuel to the fire. This would not have happened ten years ago because Singapore was still controlled by its first generation of leaders. It is not now, and they see only the dollar sign in front of them, not the other's self-respect. Thaksin has fallen, but so has Temasek Holdings and Singapore in Thailand. In Singapore, the man-in-the-street will not support the republic because they were not told of the deal. They are only told if they need to know. If they are told after the fact, they are less likely to support it.

So far the Malaysian political leadership has gone around the problems. But it is not out of the woods yet. The ground is seething. The Prime Minister's reaction to that is to warn. Now even UMNO is aghast at what its leaders have done. The opposition to the government is now strong within UMNO, and their anger is treated with respect by the leaders. But these UMNO members feel they are second class citizens, along with the Chinese, the Indians and other minorities in this country. What should worry the UMNO leaders in power is that these other groups are showing signs of joining hands, preparing the way for a multiracial opposition to the government. The police have decided that anyone who opposed the government is their enemy as well, and has said it would act accordingly. You saw what could happen, when the government forces reacted violently against the demonstrators in Nepal.

But Pak Lah's government, nor the civil and uniformed services. cannot come closer to the people. They have so far relied on the middle classes not rebelling. and if they did not, they would not provide the leadership against them. But this is not so now. The middle class have begun to realise that if they do not make a stand, it would be worse for them in the future. The 30 sen withdrawal of subsidy in petrol brought the middle class into the fray. It would not require much to get them involved. The government have long believed that it knows best, and now find the people unwilling to tell them what is wrong. Threatening people with defamation suits is not how to bring them on your side. The people are waiting for a middle class leader. The only difference now is that the government does not know whether he would or not.

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