Getting to the top without an election

[MGG] Getting to the top without an election
3 Jan 2006

THE PUTERA UMNO CHIEF, Dato' Azeez Abdul Rahman, is caught in a vice
raid at the Holiday Villa. He frequents the hotel, but he would not
have been caught if his enemies, or that of his protector, Mr Khairy
Jamaluddin, had tipped the police, who went there in full force, with
a complement of journalists. Whatever the UMNO spin, what makes the
rounds at the Holiday Villa is not what is reported. The story is,
or has become, confused. The English language newspapers talked of a
datuk being arrested, sticking to their time-honoured view of
protecting those close to the top. The internet identified the man,
as the Malay papers. The more you read what happened, which includes
the spin, the more unbelieving the story becomes. But it is seen as a
setback for Mr Khairy Jamaluddin to unseat the UMNO Youth leader,
Dato' Hishamuddin Hussein, without a fight.

He has had setbacks recently. His associates and friends have died.
The Ethos Consulting chief, Dr Liew Boon-Horng, who threatened to sue
if his links with Mr Khairy is ever mentioned, but an old friend and
possibly business partner, died in a freak accident last Friday when
a two-tonne piece of concrete fell on his car. Tan Sri Noordin Sopee
had introduced Pak Lah's daughter Nori to Mr Khairy when he was the
boss of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, and the
two were working for him but he died of thyroid cancer last week. He
has threatened those who write critically of him with law suits, but
continues giving interviews, and allows articles about him, in
friendly newspapers. Pengakalen Pasir is said to be "Khairy;s
Election". UMNO won that, but it disaffecting the local leaders, for
one.

But he faces his big crisis with the arrest of Dato' Azeez. He had
formed Putera UMNO officially as a vehicle for those who did not want
to join UMNO Youth. It was only later that even Dato' Hishamuddin
Hussein knew it was Mr Khairy's vehicle to get UMNO Youth leadership
without a fight. Mr Khairy has been using the UMNO Youth network to
form his Putera UMNO around the country. He had got to be UMNO Youth
deputy chief without a contest, and he hopes to dislodge Dato'
Hishamuddin similarly. He appointed Dato' Azeez to head Putera UMNO.
He has to sort the mess he has landed himself over the arrest in a
vice den.

Since UMNO and its leaders, especially those close to its president,
Pak Lah, do their activities in secret, Malaysians often know of
their arrival, in their past, only when they do. Now these secret
meetings are on the Internet shortly after they are finished. There
is a huge split within UMNO, the activities of the other side is
reported assiduously on the Internet while the official spin is
reported in the newspapers. But the Internet is more believed. The
UMNO is a leader-down party, and the spin it produces is often
disbelieved. Middling leaders will not stick their neck out putting
the news across if the leadership eventually disagrees. So they play
safe. The Malaysian newspapers will only report the official version,
although they might report critically on issues that affect the
people. The Holiday Villa incident is a case in point.

UMNO was founded in 1946 for a different purpose than the official
spin has it. So its women's and youth wing. Dato' Onn, the founder of
UMNO and grandfather of Hishamuddin, had got the women to protest the
British plans to reduce Malay sultans to a cipher, which is how they
came into politics. The first UMNO youth president was Tun Hussein,
Hishamuddin's father and Malaysian prime minister. The formation of
Putera UMNO for reasons other than the progress of Malaysia, or even
of the Malays, is a distorition, The only innovation it has made to
its membership is Puteri UMNO; the other political parties,
particularly PAS, have formed their own version of Puteri UMNO.

But Putera UMNO was formed as an alter ego to Puteri UMNO. But with a
diferent aim. Puteri UMNO was formed because young Malay women was
not joining Kaum Ibu. It is responsible for bringing in professional
women who otherwise would not have joined, and for making those women
a political force. They would not join Kaum Ibu because of its older
members and of its elderly leaders. Putera UMNO is formed to ensure
the political progress of one man who has reached into the inner
sanctum of government by being the son-in-law of the prime minister.

That alone is not enough. The days when he could catapault into the
prime minister's chair is long past. Tun Hussein Onn got into high
office because he was married to the elder sister of Tun Razak's
wife. He entered the cabinet after 1969, and had become prime
minister in 1976. The foreign minister was catapaulted into the
cabinet, from his banking career, because UMNO leaders felt they had
treated his father, Syed Jaffair Albar, "the Lion of UMNO", badly.
Any one who feels he has a prior claim to the top will have to ward
off UMNO leaders who have been in the party longer. In fact, UMNO has
leaders who joined the party before Mr Khairy was born.

Mr Khairy has to make sure his aides can deliver. Whether Dato' Azeez
can remain as Putera UMNO chairman remains to be seen, irrespective
whether he can spin his way out of what happened in Holiday Villa. He
would have to find a new chairman of Putera UMNO. The people in the
rural areas have begun to ignore what they read in the newspapers,
but get news from the Internet, usually from sons, daughters or
relatives working in the towns, will be hard to convince. He must
first ensure his assistants are clean, and he and his aides can deal
with any eventuality. Threating critics with law suits is not how to
do that. But Malaysian officials and politicians, and their
sidekicks, threaten law suits at the drop of a hat. The net result is
they have lost whether they carries out threats or not.

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