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PAS : KE ARAH PEMERINTAHAN ISLAM YANG ADIL
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This analysis of the UMNO convention appears in the second issue of
Harakah for May, due on 26 May 00.
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COLUMN
UMNO CONVENTION 2000: A YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY
By M.G.G. Pillai
The four-day UMNO Convention 2000 forced the Prime Minister, its
president for 19 years, into a year of living dangerously. The 2,018
delegates, fed up with his condescending, supercilious talking down to
them, his UMNO agenda no more than an opportunity to attack PAS and his
nemesis, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, his jailed deputy prime minister, his
orchestrating the elections, rebelled with such ferocity to reduce him
to a lame duck. His arrogant, self-serving presidential speech made
way, as the meeting progressed, to craving the members' indulgence to
see his Malay and Islamic agenda through.
His brave front, when the convention ended on 13 May 00, was
bolstered by his spin meisters of a kinder, more concerned UMNO
president, intent to renew faith with the UMNO rank and file. His
distaste for this is an open secret; indeed, his former (sacked)
political secretary ignored him in his Kubang Pasu division to nominate
the three vice presidents, none of whom inclined to back him when the
chips fall. But if pigs could fly, why not this Prime Minister as a man
of the people? Indeed.
Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed misjudged the mood. Long out of touch
with party affairs, inevitable in a man his worshipful cronies,
courtiers, the whole paraphernalia of government praise as, and not let
him forget is, the Perfect Leader, he overplayed his hand. He wanted a
malleable Supreme Council, rewrote the rules to obviate any challenge as
UMNO president, widened it to envelope his deputy prime minister, Dato'
Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi while looking for someone more suitable to
succeed him. He wove a web of supporters only to find no one believed
in his prescriptions any more. His fin de siecle performance revealed
what his regime, in UMNO and government, stood for: decadence.
His uncalled attacks in his presidential speech on PAS, Dato' Seri
Anwar (devoting 20 minutes of his 105-minute oration on both),
corruption while extolling the finance minister, Tun Daim Zainuddin, and
the minister for international trade and industry, misfired. The
delegates decided to elect those whose slates are not, in the Prime
Minister's considered opinion, clean: three vice presidents -- Dato'
Seri Najib Tun Razak, the defence minister; Tan Sri Muhammad Taib,
unemployed wealthy politician of leisure; Tan Sri Muhiyuddin Yassin,
the domestic trade and consumer affairs minister -- all elected in 1993
under Dato' Seri Anwar's Wawasan team; the two who deserted that team
-- Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Tamby Chik, the former chief minister of Malacca,
and Dato' Seri Megat Junid Megat Ayob -- were defeated. Only one vice
president is also his man, but his political flip flops are so
pronounced that he is ruled out as prime ministerial material.
Corruption and money politics is high on Dr Mahathir's verboten
list, but only when it affects his opponents. Praising Tun Daim for his
devoted and selfless service raised eyebrows. An unelected official, he
was UMNO treasurer when the crown jewels of UMNO investments, after
UMNO's illegality in 1988, disappeared into companies in his ultimate
control. His name does not appear anywhere but can anyone seriously
deny that Tan Sri Halim Saad is not aligned to him, with shares held as
proxy. The UMNO anger at his Rasputin-like activities is ill-concealed
these days.
Yet the finances of the government are used, through the two
government agencies throwing good money after bad, Danamodal and
Danaharta, to rescue companies linked in the public eye to him. He is
not alone. The Prime Minister also has his favourite business men, for
whom failure is just an opportunity to sell their assets to government
agencies and start afresh. The rest would take their chances in the
bankruptcy court. Tun Daim wants to depart, the Prime Minister does not
want to, and this shakes up the stock market. But the two men have lost
faith in each other, and that is widely known in the business world.
So, UMNO delegates rejected the Prime Minister's exhortations, and
voted in a strong 12-man team misaligned to him. Dato' Seri Abdullah
made his own deals, linking himself to Tan Sri Muhiyuddin and Dato' Seri
Shahrir Samad in what looks like a pact: Tan Sri Muhiyuddin as his
deputy when he succeeds Dr Mahathir, with Dato' Shahrir as the next
mentri besar of Johore. Even more traumatic for the Prime Minister is
the emergence of a solid block aligned to Dato' Seri Anwar, not just in
the Supreme Council but in the youth and wanita councils as well.
This underlines an inescapable conundrum: however much the Prime
Minister bleats about UMNO and Malay unity, that evades him until the
underlying causes of that is resolved: the VIP prisoner in Sungei Buloh
and the manner of his incarceration. The new wanita leader, Datin
Rafidah Aziz, dismissed every one aligned to the defeated wanita leader,
Datin Siti Zahrah Suleiman, before calling for unity. The Prime
Minister ordered Dr Siti Zahrah, after defeating Datin Rafidah in 1996,
from sacking every one unaligned to her. This time around, his silence
deafens. When statesmanship is called for, as now, he retreats into
unabashed parish-pump politicking.
It is this double standards that annoys the delegates. Money
politics is alive and well. Packages of money passed around before and
after the elections to delegates by backers of candidates, especially
after their victory. The whole culture seeps in corruption and money.
Not as much, superficially, than in previous years, but there all the
same. UMNO wanted videoconferencing facilities to spread the word
beyond Kuala Lumpur, realising, perhaps accurately, few listened to the
three Malaysian television channels, for the Prime Minister's precious
and specious words. UMNO then wanted Malay business men to foot the
bill. If UMNO at this level indulges in it, are we surprised this
culture seeps to the smallest branch?
The UMNO president has, since its earliest days, orchestrated UMNO
conventions. The Prime Minister refined that further to impose a caste
system kept so rigorously apart that he and his Supreme Councillors are
cut off from the hoi polloi beneath them. They met them only when they
condescended to mix with them, and the obligatory dinners they gave
their states' delegates. He does not mix with the delegates except in
controlled meetings, preferring the company of diplomats and movers and
shakers of politics and business. Accredited ambassadors appear in tow
and welcomed effusively, but if their cars, or of their subordinates,
are found within a mile of the PAS or DAP headquarters, Wisma Putra is
quick to object to their interference in local politics. UMNO's
predicament today is this caste system which buffets the leaders from
harsh realities on the ground.
The Prime Minister begins his year of living dangerously. He
should have taken the high ground and charted a course of action for
UMNO devoid of vindictive personal attacks. But his conscience is
bothered by Malay dissonnance over his treatment of his protege and once
deputy prime minister. Everything else, in the UMNO and Malay agenda,
takes second place. His preference for the low ground jugular is
understandable: he is used to it. Dato' Seri Anwar, on the other hand,
fights for his political and physical life, and attacks him as he did
Tengku Abdul Rahman in the aftermath of the 13 May 1969 riots.
He cannot evade this, or his role in it, while refusing to testify
about it in court. The Anwar affair, however he may deny it, is a blot
on UMNO, one its delegates now accept. More important, the Malay
cultural community is incensed. Dato' Seri Anwar, the unseen and
unheard campaign issue in the Malay heartland, now haunts UMNO. And
UMNO is rattled so long as he does. The UMNO delegates kicked the ball
for Dr Mahathir to dribble, and watch from the sidelines, oblivious and
unconcerned at his dilemma. Surprisingly, uncharacteristically, they
are glad he is.
M.G.G. Pillai
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