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Douse fire with petrol - MGG Pillai By web aNtu 6/1/2000 5:21 am Thu |
The National Front: Dousing Political Fires With Petrol
The National Front survived as long by dousing political fires as
occurs, to force-feed a superficial unity by a total subservience to
UMNO. That works so long as UMNO is untouched by factional fights that
bedevil MCA, Gerakan, MIC and others in the governing coalition. And
UMNO worked well with coalition leaders whose belief in democracy is
restricted to their party's general a#semblies returning them and their
coterie to office, and Malaysians their candidates to parliament and the
state a#semblies. That is now put to test despite the National Front's
better-than-hoped-for victory in the recent general elections. After 25
years, the National Front frays so severely at the edges that its future
is in doubt. It solidity depends on UMNO's continued dominance, and
that, after the elections, is questioned. The long years in autocratic
office, the fusion of business and government, the unacceptable levels
of nepotism, corruption and cronyism compounded by the devaluation of
the institutions of governance often makes the unconnected Malay the
target. When the Malay is incensed, as he is now, UMNO trembles; when
UMNO trembles, constitutional proprieties go overboard. He Who Must Be
Destroyed At All Cost is a focus, but the resurgent Malay opposition and
the irrevocable loss of two Malay states disembodies the National Front
with no worldview than to remain in office. UMNO faces forest fires
within it as severe as it is in other National Front coalition partners.
Into this comes the MCA parricide and Gerakan self-immolation. And the
Perlis mentri besar, Dato' Shahidan Ka#sim, redefining nepotism by
appointing his brother as his political secretary.
The Gerakan smoulders. The two Gerakan state a#semblymen in Penang
defected after the general elections to force an MCA representative to
be chief minister instead of Gerakan's Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon. That
backfired when UMNO, to break the impa#se, suggested a rotation of the
chief minister's post. And threatens to reduce Gerakan within the
National Front to that of the People's Progressive Party (PPP). The two
men are in limbo, neither in MCA nor Gerakan and out of kilter with
their constituents, with the near certainty of the National Front losing
the seats should they resign from the a#sembly. The MCA-Gerakan quarrel,
besides, devalues Chinese strength in the Malaysian political equation;
indeed, their leaders hold political office under sufferance. So the
400 members who followed Dato' Lim Ee Hong out of Gerakan yesterday (4
January 00) is more serious than the numbers indicate. Gerakan is
irrevocably split. The former chief minister, Tun Lim Chong Eu, and his
old United Democratic Party (UDP) comrade, Dato' Lim, now is prepared to
bury Gerakan, the years of papering over internal contradictions and
hostility unable to withstand the vissitudes of fortune. The MCA has a
lot to answer for this. In Penang, the Chinese disgust, especially
after it ensured the defeat of two opposition stalwarts, Mr Lim Kit
Siang and Mr Karpal Singh, from the state a#sembly and Parliament, must
irk, if not frighten, both MCA and Gerakan. Within the National Front,
MCA and Gerakan are subsumed in the larger political disturbances in
UMNO. The Chinese swing towards the National Front in the general
elections was as dramatic as Johore sweeping the state: neither with
the leaders, gumption or vision to press their case. The UMNO Supreme
Council's declaration that the Prime Minister and his deputy be returned
unopposed as its president and deputy president underlines weakness not
strength. The Prime Minister's call for a clean UMNO election is in
sharp contrast to its stand during the general elections. Into this
comes a variation of the nepotism argument. Dato Shahidan Ka#sim, the
Perlis mentri besar, wants his brother placed high in Perlis UMNO. He
could not when PAS captured the Arau parliamentary constituency in a
byelection; thinks he has when he now appoints him as his political
secretary. That is not all. UMNO clearly fractured into discernible
political and the cultural factions, both yet undefined formless groups.
The Prime Minister leads one and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah the other, the
former with the edge. He would no doubt remain in control of UMNO, but
that could dissipate UMNO's hold over the cultural heartland, already
badly shaken over the Anwar affair. The new state UMNO liaison chiefs
reflects total loyalty to the Prime Minister than to their ability to
reorganise UMNO in their states. Arising from this, traditional UMNO
members shift their political allegience to PAS or, less frequently,
Keadilan. UMNO has yet succeeded in staunching this. It reflects Malay
uncertainties. Where once this focussed on the Prime Minister, it now
gradually is on UMNO itself. Is there a way out? Not if the General a#sembly in May is
lobotomised to vote the current coterie into office. Whether it could
be is another matter. But the mainstream newspapers report on this as
if it already is. One perceptive observer argues that the Prime
Minister is already the most reviled Malay leader in history. That may
or may not be but the deafening silence to his political fine-tuning to
his advantage reflects not support but controlled anger. That UMNO lost
Trengganu to PAS, which retained Kelantan as dramatically, reflects
this, more than of Islam's resurgence. The Prime Minister's difficulty
is that he focussed the future on his persona rather than on the country
or party. Sleepwalking through it all, the National Front and UMNO now
trip into political traps it placed to continue in power. This cultural
divide the MCA, Gerakan and the Chinese community misunderstood to
complicate the National Front's future. And threatens to reduce UMNO's
status of cultural protector of the Malays to an also ran, as the
Congress Party in India eventually became.
M.G.G. Pillai
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