WE WERE staying in a holiday cottage in Lynton, the quintessentially small English village in Devon, the setting of the great classic, Lorna Doone, by R.D. Blackmore, first published in 1869. We had run out of milk for breakfast, and so my wife, little daughter and I got into our rented Morris Traveller for the short drive to our favourite local grocery. My wife went into the store while we waited in the car. No sooner had she entered the shop than out she came, in shock, to tell me that race riots had broken out in Kuala Lumpur.
The lady who owned the shop had, in the week or so we were there, got to know us a little and knew we were from Malaysia. Her first words on seeing my wife were, “Your country is burning!” My wife replied, “You must be thinking of Vietnam, surely.” In 1969, the war in Vietnam was still on. She then pointed to the stacks of The London Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Manchester Guardian and the rest of the British dailies, all with their screaming headlines. That settled any lingering doubts we might have had, and I bought every newspaper I could lay my hands on.
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The last three months have seen a flurry of activity on the Perak political front. All of this was without any doubt occasioned by Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s blatantly cynical, barefaced manipulation of human greed. Najib is no novice when it comes to money matters. He succeeded spectacularly in seducing the three most unremarkable and positively unpleasant Pakatan Rakyat characters to declare themselves independent supporters of the Barisan Nasional.
They have, as to be expected, denied most vehemently that they had succumbed to any such unworthy and degrading temptation as money. Conventional wisdom, on the other hand, says that Malaysian politicians will only transfer their party allegiance for cash, and not principle. I leave you to draw your own conclusion in this particular case.
Najib’s single act of subterfuge has been remarkable for the damage, and repercussions, to the Malaysian body politic, quite apart from damaging further his own already seriously bruised reputation. If he thought what he had done was an example of cutting edge political sophistication, I suggest he should think again. He has by his reckless adventure only succeeded in portraying himself as nothing more than a common garden variety, and not the statesman that we thought he would become given his father’s honoured place in our history and his family credentials.
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WE ARE ALL familiar with a certain joke, much in vogue, about a dead certainty of a pebble thrown randomly high above a Malaysian gathering landing squarely on a Datuk.
Political jokes or cartoons, whether hilarious or not, apparently carry a message of sorts, and this particular one is stingingly pointed in its contemptuous condemnation of a widespread practice that has become a national embarrassment. State, federal governments and royal palaces, some more brazen, and others less so, have been responsible for debasing our honours system instituted, and rightly so, to honour citizens for bravery, for distinguished service to science, soccer, cricket, industry, community and whatever else considered worthy of public recognition.
Cash for honours in modern times was David Lloyd George’s answer to the eternal difficulty of raising money for party funds. Lloyd George, as some will recall, was the Liberal Party Prime Minister of Britain who in 1916 replaced Herbert Asquith. History tells us that while this practice was nothing new, it was the sheer scale of Lloyd George’s marketing of honours operations that alarmed the nation.
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I never for a moment thought I should live to see the day when a traditional hereditary ruler of a Malay State has taken such a rapid slide in his people’s estimation, approbation and adulation as has the Sultan Azlan Shah of Perak. It took one unfortunate, ill-conceived and ill-considered decision over a petition by the Pakatan Rakyat Mentri Besar Datuk Nizar Jamaluddin, to dissolve the Perak State Assembly that has turned Perak into a politically difficult and dangerous situation.
His Highness Sultan Azlan Shah is no ordinary ruler. As a former Lord President and head of the Malaysian judiciary, he ascended the throne of Perak as someone well-qualified by education and training for what, for all practical purposes, is a largely ceremonial sinecure. Be that as it may, the position carries a heavy constitutional responsibility.
It has become quite apparent that while his legal knowledge may be assumed to be extensive, his training more than adequate, his wisdom in dealing with a delicate and important political matter of public concern, on reflection, has in my humble opinion, turned out to be questionable. A great deficiency in a ruler who showed so much early promise of being a wise, liberal minded and benevolent leader.
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It never ceases to amaze me how simple and trusting we Malaysians are.
We have heard all these promises before. Pak Lah, the Mr Clean and Mr Nice Guy of Malaysian politics proclaimed his great mission of fighting corruption after 22 years of unprincipled and largely unaccountable governance under Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
We lapped it all up, initially at any rate, and believed every word the spin doctors spewed out about Abdullah Badawi.
It was not too difficult a job for Abdullah Badawi, or anyone else for that matter, after Mahathir, to look ethically spotless, clean and pure as the driven snow.
Badawi, with his religious credentials, gave every appearance of being the reformer that this country had been praying for. Alas, his leadership proved a total let-down for Malaysia.
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UNEASY LIES THE HEAD THAT WEARS A CROWN – William Shakespeare’s Henry the Fourth.
“The role of the constitutional monarchy goes beyond what is stipulated in the constitution. The rulers have a far wider responsibility in ensuring that the spirit of the constitution, the philosophy behind the written law, and the interest of the country and the people are safeguarded at all times.” – Sultan Azlan Shah.
I am sad to note that there are among us those who have chosen to interpret Sultan Azlan Shah’s rendering of the role of the constitutional monarchy as an example of our rulers seeking to act outside the remit of their constitutional authority. A ruler naturally cannot act arbitrarily, for example, by ignoring any of the provisions of the constitution without inviting formal strictures.
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If you want my honest opinion, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s People’s Cabinet is totally uninspiring and insipid to boot. And that is being charitable. What a sad commentary on the paucity of proven talent and integrity within the ranks of Barisan Nasional that all Najib has succeeded in putting on offer is a team of recycled political expendables, many with personal records of integrity that will not bear close scrutiny.
Najib has done nothing more than a bit of tinkering. Is this the clean and honest team that he has promised the nation? Instead of calling it a Cabinet, a more accurate and honest name for it is surely “baggage room” because most of those who are our new ministers, including Najib, unfortunately, are perceived to be carrying oversized baggage into office. If this had been a team chosen by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, I should not have been surprised.
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IT WOULD NOT have been human if Datuk Seri Najib Razak had not hoped against hope that the voters in the Bukit Selambau and Bukit Gantang by-elections on April 8 would, in a manner of speaking, present him, on a gleaming silver salver, the two decapitated heads of the vanquished Pakatan Rakyat candidates. In the event, it was an unfulfilled dream because not only did they survive the relentless Barisan Nasional sniper fire, but also the heavy artillery in the shape of Tun Dr. Mahathir. Pakatan Rakyat candidates, as expected, emerged triumphant and completely unscathed. I will not dignify the Sarawak by-election with my comment except to say that in Sarawak anything goes, and the government cannot stand up to close scrutiny.
The new prime minister, who in another life, deftly diverted the course of “natural justice” by having the democratically elected menteri besar removed, and subsequently treated him so shabbily, was not forgotten by the public for this disgraceful action. He was punished by the voters in these constituencies who denied him the one trophy that would have legitimised his elevation to the nation’s highest political office.
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Every head of government, whether elected or not that I know of, begins his or her term of office by making some dramatic gesture or other. In a repressive regime such as ours, releasing political prisoners and other prisoners of conscience from detention camps in which they have no business being incarcerated in the first place, is de rigueur.
For a leader such as Tun Mahathir Mohamad, adopting this practice as a public demonstration of his overflowing compassion for the people of Malaysia was certainly not out of character.
The resultant public euphoria went as fast as it came when hundreds were later detained under the ISA in the Operation Lalang crackdown. I am naturally disappointed that Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak has allowed himself to freefall into the pits of cynicism by announcing the release of the ISA detainees days before the by-elections; one each in Kedah, Perak and Sarawak.
You, Najib, have missed a great opportunity to show us that you are different!
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UMNO succeeded brilliantly in putting on a well-orchestrated monologue carnival on the universally fashionable twin-theme of change and reform at their just concluded annual political jamboree. They succeeded in the event of mesmerising themselves into a frenzy. Talking change is easy, but “walking the change” is when the uncommitted falls by the wayside.
By all accounts, UMNO, of all political parties in Malaysia, is a most unlikely candidate for change. It is stuck in a time warp. Its leadership, never known for its ability to focus on critical national issues and respond quickly to the needs of the moment, more often than not, has absolutely no clue where to begin the process.
Blaming the opposition for things that do not go according to plan is well and good, but it would be more helpful and constructive for UMNO to accept and digest a simple fact of life which stipulates that the external pressures acting on you are only as influential as your internal weaknesses. UMNO’s internal weaknesses are there for all to see, but it says a great deal about its organisational culture that the leaders remain both deaf and blind to the rot that stares them in the face. This being the case, UMNO continues to stumble from crisis to crisis, quite unaware why even the Malays who should be rallying round to support it are instead turning their backs on it.
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