Baksheesh in UMNOland
By M.G.G. Pillai
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
NO CORRUPTION IN UMNO, so the anti-corruption agency
(ACA) cannot step in, says the deputy prime minister,
Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak. Yes, it can, says the ACA
director-general, Dato' Seri Zulkapli Mat Noor, and
anyone can file a report. Of course, it can, says the
Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. "If
in money politics, there are things that violate the
law," he said, the ACA could act on its own or on
complaints lodged. But is there not a rule in UMNO
that if a member files a police report, he is
suspended or sacked? Times have changed.
The UMNO election in September tarred every one, from
president to the branch member, with corruption by
whatever name UMNO calls it: money politics, "politik
wang", "wang politik". This distinction, one now
suspended UMNO leader told me, is crucial: "Politics
in UMNO is expensive; no one works for free these
days, but without workers, you are dead before you
begin. That is politik wang, which every UMNO
politician must have. Then there is wang politik, the
money you spend to get election after the politik wang
is taken care of." He was suspended, he avers, for
'politik wang', not for 'wang politik'. But he does
not address the crucial question: is not both 'wang
politik' and 'politik wang' corruption? Or that one
must be corrupt to be an UMNO politician?
The UMNO election upsets only showed that the
challengers bribed their way to office more
efficiently. The challengers were not organised in
times past, and those in office, the president's men,
had no competiton. Often, the president called his
detractors in, bribed him with contracts and jobs and,
when that failed, with bankruptcy and worse. If you do
not believe this, ask one who refused what was
offered: the former deputy president, Dato' Seri Anwar
Ibrahim.
But UMNO's political destruction of him backfired:
UMNO itself went into deep thrombrosis, its leaders
deaf, blind and dumb. The new president could not make
himself heard, did not yet have the aura of office to
bring UMNO's thousand mutinies to heel. The members
did not hesitate to demand some of the money spread
around, with the candidate unprepared to pay out
marked for defeat. What upset this is a ground revolt,
for which little credit is yet given, of those who
felt this would destroy UMNO, and gathered a force
which would vote only for candidates who did not bribe
their way through. Its members voted for a list that
sent several political careers crashing to the ground.
It would not have been as bad if UMNO had to confront
only corruption. But not the unexpected release from
prison of Pak Sheikh. He was jailed in a series of
kangaroo court trials for corruption and sodomy, which
he insisted was politically motivated, that his
political difficulties began when he challenged
cronyism, corruption, privatisation and unconcern for
the people. The ruling cabal was frightened enough to
force him out. It pulled all stops, and fell foul of
Malay culture.
Who suffered politically and culturally was not Pak
Sheikh but his tormentors, chief among whom was the
former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamed. His
political stake rose by the day as UMNO's declined.
Curiously, UMNO cannot reverse itself for two reasons
its leaders insist does not matter: Pak Sheikh, who is
not only an expelled UMNO member but one who would
never be re-admitted; and corruption, by whatever
name, which UMNO leaders aver does not exist in it.
But these two reasons which frightens UMNO no end.
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