The National Front is in trouble always, but it had better watch out

The National Front is in trouble always, but it had better watch out
4 Jan 2006

THE NATIONAL FRONT IS caught in a cleft stick. It idoes not know how to solve the problems within. The political scene has changed, what measures it takes would be known. And it needs the secrecy if it is remain a viable political party. No one in the party, from the Prime Minister, who is its president as of its major party, UMNO, down, would talk about the crisis within or outside. It has always ruled by stealth, creeping on the people often against their will. The latest crisis – that of Corporal Moorthy and of Muslim women – grips Malaysians at the moment, but Malaysians had always woken up to be shortchanged, often by the National Front government. But it has always had a solid majority, usually two-thirds, in Parliament; it now has about 90 per cent of the house.


The May 1969 racial riots is a good starting point. That was, contrary to the spin, an UMNO coup to remain in power for all time. The New Economic Policy and Malay Dominance followed. It could not stomach the fact that in Selangor and Perak, it had the same seats in the state assembly as the oppposition. In Penang, an opposition coalition led by Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia has captured the state. Parliament was suspended after the riots, and the NOC, of which the secretary was the present prime minister, ruled. and PAS had ruled Kelantan since 1959.. Before Parliament was restored, the NEP and Malay Dominance was in place. The National Front was formed, its early members included PAS and Gerakan, and replaced the Alliance that brought the country indepedence in 1957.


The non-Malay ministers lost their policy-making powers, helped by the MCA pulling out of the Alliance after the election, believing it had failed the Chinese. As then, the MCA defers to UMNO, which is why the National Front government gets its pledges the way UMNO wants it. After the 1969 riots, it therefore put in place a government in which the Chinese, Indian and other non-Malay races did not have a policy making role. It was left to individuals to make that change. Over the years, UMNO got more arrogant, and got laws passed because it thought them necessary. It did not care what the non-Malays in National Front thought. It took decisions unilaterally. The non-Malay parties put their tail behind their tails and joined the Natioanal Front as irrelevant junior partners.


It is in trouble now because it takes a generation, about 30 years, for policies to fruit. The NEP and Malay Dominance of those days is only now being tested. It was made clear then non-Malays would be looked upon with disfavour in the government and uniformed services. In 1973, only two Chinese and one Indian inspectors were taken in. They have retired, but no one has a higher rank than assistant superintendent of police. A non-Malay chief inspector is studying law, because he does not want to, as he put it, salute those he had helped train. Today, there are hardly non-Malays in either service, when they are needed the most.


There is a glass ceiling for the non-Malays. The Malay would not take orders from a non-Malay. So, even at the lower ranks, the non-Malay is shut out for promotion. No non-Malay becomes chief clerks or matrons. Those seen had held the jobs before it was decided the non-Malay could not be. But there are due to retire. And none of the non-Malays can expect promotion on the same basis as the Malay. The inspector-general of police, Tun Haniff Omar, repeats the canard of the government: that the non-Malay is more interested in the private sector because he would be paid more. It is not true. He has no choice.


The non-Malay knows he cannot get help from the National Front government, His representatives in the government will not fight his case because he prefers to be in the government and would not open his mouth. He will be vocal about extraneous items, but not what concerns his people. There has been no rebuttal to Tun Haniff's statement, and Dato' M. Kayveas is more interested in fighting corruption in local councils. He does not say lthat the Nataional Front controls all local councils. When things are done in secret, corruption festers. The National Front does not allow the local councils to be open.


But the National Front is caught: the women senators brought the denigration of their sex to their notice at the last possible moment. The Lower House of Parliament had passed the Islamic Laws bill in September, so it thought it would bee too in the Senate. As it happened, three cabinet ministers were called in to sort the matter out. Finally the bill was passed after a promise was extracted to have it amended soon. All it needs to shake up an organisation like the National Front is an individual. It blinked when the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, raised the banner of revolt after he was beaten to a pulp by the Inspector-General of Police. It has been downhill ever since.


UMNO said, as usual without discussion or debate, it was not a Malay but an Islamic party, changing its core values to follow the smaller but more focussed Parti Se islam or PAS. It has become used by then to watching over its shoulders before it does anything. And the list grows. First, it was Dato' Seri Anwar, then the party formed to get him out of jail, Keadilan Rakyat Malaysia, PAS, women, and now Islamicists. The National Front, of which UMNO is the main partner, will not discuss important legislation in Parliament or the state assemblies it controls, so it has to assume what the opposition would do. It wants to remain a Malay and Islamic party, but it needs the support of the non-Malays to be that.


But the non-Malays, fed up their political leaders, start groups against them. This is on a small scale at the moment, but pockets of them are being formed throughout the country. In Johore, the Johore Indian Business Association (JIBA) has virtually replaced the MCA in representing the Indians. It has started small, concentrates on the petty traders, but it has got the MIC leaders in the state being more active. The Malays, especially the young, join PAS if they want a political future, and UMNO if they want to be billionaires. But those who want to be in either party join hands with the non-Malays to form an effective political grouping. They may or may not succeed, but it keeps the National Front on its toes.


The National Front hopes it can survive, but keeping its structure intact. But it will have to open up. It wants to reduce the powers of the rulers, the Indians, the Chinese and other non-Malays. Unless there is open discussion within, and without, it cannot hope to. It thinks it is the UMNO view that prevails. The others keep quiet. That is not how it can survive. Nor passing laws with promises of amendments afterwards. It has been in power since 1955, when it first came into power, but it can continue only if it addresses its faults.


[This was my column , but under a different title, in the Harakah, the official organ of PAS, and appears today]


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