MGGP: For the National Front, the people do not matter

For the National Front, the people do not matter
30 Jan 2006

THE DEPUTY PRESIDENTS OF parties in the National Front, elected to
office, are not liked by their presidents. In UMNO, Gerakan Rakyat
Malaysia, MCA, MIC, for example, the presidents believe they can
ignore the membership. In MIC, the president goes one step further.
He arranges so that the branches supporting the deputy president is
struck off for the flimsiest of reasons, and rearrange these braches
to be beholden to him. The deputy president, Dato' S. Subramaniam
will not help the average member; in his interviews, he wants to
succeed to the presidency by Buggins' turn, has no policy for its
members, only wants to be president of MIC. Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu
has already started. Those branches likely to be expelled has formed
a new, irrelevant political party, MIC Baru. The news media reported
it as a straight story, to show no doubt there is democracy in this.

But a check would have revealed this is nonsense. The Registrar of
Societies would not approve a political party, even with a Baru
added. In 1988, the Registrar of Societies had to bend the rules to
give UMNO Baru the assets of the old UMNO, declared illegal by the
courts. Of course, it went to the UMNO in power. It is only now that
details of that decision are coming to light. UMNO the nationalist
movement was replaced by UMNO the political party. But it has
problems with the Malay community. The MIC Baru is dead before it
started. It would not be given unless Dato' Seri Samy Vellu had give
permission. Has he? But Dato' Seri Samy Vellu got the deputy
president he does not want to say he had nothing to do with it. He is
working overtime to ensure his nominee is elected the deputy
president. But when political leaders do elaborate moves to have a
man of their choice as deputy presidents, they will have reason to
regret at leasure in retirement.

Tun Mahathir Mohamed appointed four deputy presidents – Tan Sri Musa
Hitam, Tun Ghafar Baba, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Dato' Seri Abdullah
Badawi – and one, Dato' Seri Abdullah Badawi, succeeded him. Today,
Tun Mahathir spends his waking hours trying to remove that man from
his job. But even his former supporters in the civil service and
business men have deserted him. The Malaysian is given a choice
between the prime minister who has the future in front of him and a
prime minister known for what he had done in the past. In Malaysia,
the man of the hour is the custodian of all that is good in Malaysia.
Tun Mahathir's expired when he resigned two years ago. But politics
in UMNO is still conducted at the top. The leaders think the decision
they made can be forced upon the members. It is not only UMNO leaders
believe that, all National Front party leaders believe it.

Going hand in hand are the mainstream media. They know which side
their bread is buttered. He may be prime minister once but not know.
He may have once appointed its editor-in-chief. But not now. They
will not run him down as they would an opposition leader, but he
would be regarded in the news columns as second only to the Prime
Minister, any criticisms he has of the Prime Minister would not be
printed, a fate he shares with the opposition leaders. Malaysia may
be a democracy, at least we have regular elections, but the elections
rules and officials are so thought of that they represent a hidden
agenda. It is never revealed. But that is challenged now. Even the
chairman of the Elections Commission now admits that the elections
were not fair. The people who believed in the national movement do
not now believe in the political party, whatever is name. Even its
former presidents died outside of UMNO. Its former presidents never
joined UMNO the political party.

I have discussed UMNO and its travails much more than I would have.
But what happens in UMNO would happen it the National Front parties.
The only difference is that what happens in the National Front
parties do not affect the residents of this country, but what happens
in UMNO would. What happens in the National Front parties will create
whirlpools in the pond, but nothing more. But its members would not
vote for the National Front in the elections. These parties allow
UMNO to carry out policies which affect them. Dato' Seri Samy Vellu
now asks MIC members to tell him what ails the community, so that he
could bring it up. After 25 years as MIC president, he knows not what
ails the community?

But the National Front behaves arrogantly because it believes it is
unbeatable. So the President of Roumania, Mr Nicolai Ceasescu,
thought. He spoke to the crowd from his Palace window in Bucharest.
It was well received, as it would be, until from one corner a
criticism was expressed. Stung, he asked, who said that? Then another
section of the crowd expressed its criticism, and soon the whole
crowd was baying for his blood. Three days later, he and his wide
were shot dead in a cellar by his former security staff. I am not
saying this would happen to the National
Front. The National Front, particularly UMNO, got so paranoid, when
the people of Malaysia rose against the government when it tried to
destroy Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, after first sacking him from his
government job. He was humiliated, jailed, restricted from political
office, and now there is intense talk within UMNO whether he should
be admitted.

He has made no application to return to UMNO, is very much an
opposition figure, and UMNO, conversely, is frightened of that
prospect. UMNO assumed he would, and looks for ways to prevent him
joining. Acres of newsprint carried stories of UMNO's worries and
doubts about that eventuality. But no one from the mainstream press
asked him whether he would. Whilst in prison, he thought up the idea
of a separate political group for the educated women. The opposition
parties were arguing the merits of it, when UMNO ran with it, and
brought about the most useful political development since
independence. But it will lose that advantage, as its leaders are
appointed, not elected, and the opposition parties now realise they
cannot ignore it. The National Front has only one main: to remain in
power for ever. It ignores the warts within it, but if it is not
careful, they would swamp it. So the formation of MIC Baru is
irrelevelant. Neither can it be formed without the MIC's knowledge.
The Registrar of Societies will ask MIC Baru to get a letter. Any
other decision can only be possible with MIC support.

M.G.G. Pillai