UMNO is very desperate now when they see support for the Opposition growing. The flip-flop policies of Najib Abdul Razak, the prime minister, is one reason for this. Najib’s silent elegant on the many issues surrounding him and his team of leaders is making the Opposition to gain ground in both urban and rural constituents. The RM500 dole to the poor is not helping UMNO either as the amount is perceived as too small compared to all the lavish spending and expenses of UMNO leaders, spouses and their families. Whatever popular rating given to Najib or Anwar Ibrahim at this point of time is not a true indicator of the whole political fervent in the country, as these indicators are based on micro samples which are not empirical enough. A general election involves millions of voters from a wide cross-section of more than a few hundred questionnaire respondents.
Studies in fact have shown that 60 percent of voters are still fence sitters or secretive of whether to vote for BN or Pakatan. For now, BN and Pakatan can only be sure of about 20 percent support from voters each, except for Penang, Kelantan, Selangor and Perak where the trend favours Pakatan more than BN. Tackling the remaining 60 percent of voters will actually decide on the true outcome of the next general election (GE). According to some political observers, the 13th general election was supposed to be held in December 2011 or January 2012. And now Najib is still groping for the right time as he has yet to garner enough confidence that Barisan Nasional will win the 13th GE.
Optimism for a two-party system
Out of desperation UMNO has to reluctantly drag in Daim Zainuddin, the former two-time finance minister, to be interviewed by the mainstream media. However, the outcome of the interview was heavily padded by the media to give a feel-good ambience for the country under the present UMNO leadership. If truth be told, this discourse has actually backfired on UMNO. Daim in the interview had, in fact, in a subtle manner expressed his optimism for a two-party system for the country and did acknowledge the strength of the Opposition and he did obviously point at the vulnerable heels of UMNO and the Opposition’s Achilles.
When Daim came up with his predictions on the outcome of the 2008 GE, UMNO stalwarts scoffed at him calling him a spent force in politics. And now, again Daim is not overtly predicting that BN will win the next GE. A deeper scrutiny of his thoughts in the interview did espouse the fact that only the best team would win this time at the federal level – it can either be BN or Pakatan Rakyat. In other words, Daim has indirectly acknowledged the presence of a viable two-party system in the country that bodes well for the people. Daim also emphasised on the different political needs of the young generation. The young generation, for that matter, are hoping for a change of government this time. They want to see the country heading in the right direction under the leadership of someone they trust more. Indeed, there is a positive sign that the present generation of voters no longer want to see a government that is corrupt and racially divided.
The general public seems to know more about the weaknesses of UMNO than Daim does. Or, perhaps Daim may have chosen to ignore this reality in his discourse. Being an UMNO man, Daim’s recent analysis of the situation in the country did not significantly focus more on Najib’s weaknesses as prime minister, the lack of transparency in government’s financial management, massive corruption and abuse of power that have badly tainted UMNO since 1981, the RM570 million illegal kickback from French arms giant DCN for agreeing to buy 2 Scorpene submarine and later followed by the gruesome murder of the Mongolian lady, Altantuya, and the embattled RM250 million NFC that went out of control with abuse of the soft loan, among others. These are only the tip of the iceberg. The list of UMNO’s misdeeds goes on and on. The mainstream media is hiding all these from the people.
More the reason for a two-party system
When the mainstream media conceal these issues from the public, the alternative media does the people a favour by disclosing and telling the truth of what is going on in UMNO-led government. UMNO, unlike a decade ago, cannot keep on hiding their weaknesses from the people. Evidently, Daim, in parts of the interview, was playing a safe game as he is still a businessman allied to UMNO. The people can assume that Daim is aware that corruption and the abuse of rights and privileges have become indispensable in the country due to power monopoly, arrogance and lack of transparency in the present UMNO system of governance. And this is more the reason why the people are for a strong two-party system for the country to do the check-and-balance.
Daim on his part should worry less about the Pakatan-controlled states as these states are doing relatively well with better and more sincere leaders at the helm, as compared with those incumbent UMNO leaders. He must be aware that graft is minimum in these Pakatan-controlled states which are led by competent and God-fearing leaders. Corruption, undeniably, is not the traditions in these states. This has impressed the present generation of educated voters. Daim had in his discourse auspiciously praised the present Selangor menteri besar by implying that UMNO needs a more capable leader if they want to seize Selangor from Khalid. He described Khalid as clean leader. On Penang and Kelantan, he predicts that the state will remain under Pakatan. The battle will be tough for BN in Kedah and Perak. And the people can also sense that the battle will be equally tough in Negeri Sembilan, Sabah and Sarawak.
With bad governance and bad practices tarnishing UMNO’s image, Najib has to bring in Daim to salvage the sagging image of UMNO. But this move has actually done more harm than good to UMNO. It was reported in the interview that Daim commented on racial disunity, corruption, financial scandals that could tarnish a government and want the people to be united against these irritants affecting the country. This is a noble suggestion indeed. This is exactly what the Young Turks in the Opposition are doing – by exposing the wrongdoings of Najib and UMNO. These are the people in the Opposition now who will one day lead the country against UMNO in a two-party system. The Opposition now is playing a wise game of disclosing all the abuses in present government and this portends well for the country and its people.
Corruption has become an integral part of UMNO
Absolute power corrupts and leaders at the helm for too long will end up becoming “untouchables”. With this kind of absolute power the tendency is for the judiciary, the anti-corruption body, the police and the civil service to be exploited to favour the incumbent government even when the government is corrupted to the core or is involved in crime and financial scandals. Daim, however, fails to understand that the Opposition is not against police, anti-corruption or judiciary. They are only against any form of abuse and exploitation of these institutions, as these institutions should not be used as tools to help an ill-omened government to stay in power.
But little did Daim realise that corruption has become an integral part of UMNO culture since 1981 and it cannot be easily erased from its entrenched system. Some political analyses have described that UMNO was only perceived relatively clean during the tenure of the first three prime ministers of the country. Perhaps these prime ministers’ background as lawyers could have made them more morally upright. Besides that, most UMNO leaders then were teachers who had no business interests. The culture of going into politics to become filthy rich started after that period of time and Mahathir Muhammad should take the blame together with Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the 5thprime minister, and Najib.
The country’s trace on corruption was relatively clean until 1981 when Mahathir took over as prime minister. Mahathir failed to curb not only corruption in UMNO-led government but he was alleged to have sown cronyism and nepotism in his style of administration. The 22-years of Mahathir’s rein as prime minster saw the worst in corruption, financial management, cronyism and nepotism. Beyond that, during his tenure the judiciary became tainted. As one writer in the past wrote:
“The Malaysian Judiciary is not what it should be. It is said to dispense "the best justice money can buy". Outside its doors are the detritus of judicial skeletons, which by the time it became public had become the norm. Political and other pressures dictated how a high profile case is decided. Justice, in short, was available only to the highest or the most powerful bidder.”
The people will also remember Daim
This bad practices in governance have dragged on until the present government. Money and the ambition to become rich swiftly have become the ultimate aim of UMNO politicians since 1981. They enter politics not with altruistic values to serve the people but are more of the self-serving type. Lest we forget, the people will also remember Daim in many ways – good and bad. Some may describe him a man who had rendered great service to the nation. He became the country’s finance minister twice under Mahathir’s government –1984-1991 and 1998-2001. His second appointment as finance minister was a very short affair, as he was politely shown the door by Mahathir in 2001.
Despite having much of his tenure fogged up in controversy, Daim had nonetheless earned the repute as one of the country’s capable economic architects, having steered Malaysia through recession into four straight years of high growth. “… that is what I like to remember when I think of him,” wrote Mahathir in his Memoir – A Doctor In The House (p538). In other words, Mahathir prefers not to remember Daim for what he disliked about him.
Most people would consider Daim a reluctant politician as he is more of a businessman. When a businessman goes into politics and when politics is not his proclivity there is always a likelihood that his political decisions can be influenced by his business interests. Unfortunately, Daim during his tenure with the government was not perceived as a clean leader either, as how Mahathir wrote about him in his Memoir:
“… Tun Daim in the past soon returned. He was repeatedly accused of lining his pockets and taking kickbacks from contracts. No clear evidence was produced, but once again the whispering grew more spiteful. People came to see me to complain about him, and when I demanded evidence, they could produce none. Yet I could not easily defend him. Exculpatory evidence was no more easily found than the incriminating variety. I could produce no solid grounds for his defence. I never spoke to him about this because I knew what his answer would be.” (p536)
“When the talk go to be too much and I could not bear it anymore, I arranged for him to resign. In the end what worried me were not only the rumours of cronyism but also tales of his supposed disloyalty.” (p536)
“.... But when it had all become too much, I didn’t accuse him of anything but sent word through a mutual friend that I wanted him to resign.” (p537)
Opposition team filled with young educated leaders
Seemingly, corruption and abuse of resources have become fossilised and a way of life in UMNO. This was partly due to the weak Opposition in the past. The scenario now has totally changed. There is a conscientious Opposition team filled with young educated leaders – the next generation leaders in Pakatan Pact – who are all out against all this misconduct in UMNO.
When the mainstream media shuns the Opposition, the alternative media is inspiring the people to accept a two-party system for the country to combat abuse of power and endemic corruption. It’s now the people’s fervent hope that the government that is formed after the next GE will be a government that gives importance to good governance to the fullest, is more transparent and is all out against corruption and financial wastage and leakages.
It’s a blessing that young voters of today are more educated, informed and IT savvy. As Daim said in the interview, “In the 60s, their parents influenced them, but today they are influencing their parents through knowledge of current issues and debates supported by convincing facts and figures. If BN fails to appreciate this group, they will not get votes.” But UMNO and BN will not appreciate this or neither would they change as it not easy to defosilise what has been their trademark since 1981.
The general perception now is, UMNO is losing voters from the younger generation for its poor governance, arrogance and racial politics. UMNO has failed the young in many ways when it comes to the country’s financial management when too many leakages have been reported almost every year by the Auditor General. They see corruption as rife and no serious efforts have been taken by their leaders to curb this. They observe that Najib prefers to remain silent on matters that will drag him into the fiascos. After all, Najib is known for his play-safe approach to politics.
Impressed with many young leaders in the Opposition
Beyond that UMNO’s ways of resolving national issues in the racial way is no more accepted by the young generation. Voters are now more impressed with the many young leaders in the Opposition who are scrutinising all the bad practices of UMNO-led government. Good practices in governance is what the young educated voters are seeking in a government. It is this support from the enlightened voters that will give the Opposition an edge against UMNO-led BN in the next GE.
And this has made the Opposition a credible entity. Old leaders in the Opposition will soon fade away to give way to the young and the exuberant to fill in the vacuum. Today, only UMNO fears the advent of a two-party system but UMNO cannot stop this trend from becoming a reality in the Malaysian political landscape.
Malaysia Chronicle
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