Dr M's Pandora's Box: BN breakup begins, MCA gets a glimpse of its marching orders

Already well-known for his 'anything-to-win' political ruthlessness, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad is not a stranger to controversy.

In the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, he is now regarded as the most dangerous fuse that can spark self-destruction and set in motion the dismantlement of the 14-member group that has ruled the country for the past 5 decades.

Calling the MCA's bluff

Indeed, Mahathir's recent U-turn over a controversial Muslim penal code that calls for outrageous punishment including beheading, stoning to death and the amputation of limbs has cast the spotlight on MCA, adding to the pressure on the Chinese-based party to leave BN.

Led by the scandal-tainted Chua Soi Lek, MCA has been trying hard to regain the huge ground lost to the Opposition in the 2008 general election. Many believe it faces annihilation in the next polls as do its colleagues Gerakan and MIC.

The rest of the BN parties are mostly from East Malaysia, where some senior leaders have already resigned, preferring to contest the 13th general election under the Opposition banner.

In recent months, the MCA has rehashed an old strategy - using the Muslim hudud law to scare-monger Chinese voters back to its fold.

To prove their 'sincerity', MCA leaders have vowed that if ever Mahathir's UMNO - which is the BN's biggest party - implements an Islamic state or the harsh hudud law, it would walk.

“UMNO will ensure a fully compliant Islamic state if PAS has a big heart to join UMNO. Other Islamic countries are also putting hope on Malaysia, but there are still people wanting to split the Muslims. That’s why our goal is not achieved,” Malay daily Sinar Harian had quoted Mahathir as saying last week.

Now, how clear can Mahathir be. But instead of issuing a sharp and immediate rebuke, the MCA leaders have again chosen to close an eye. Instead of demanding an explanation from UMNO, the MCA fired out a barrage of illogical statements at arch rival DAP to deflect attention.

One MCA chieftain even went so far as to chastise DAP for not being able to control its Pakatan Rakyat partner PAS and getting it to drop its quest for hudud and an Islamic state. Selangor MCA even declared 'choose us and we'll prevent an Islamic state'. Other wild utterances from Soi Lek and team include 'PAS equals hudud'.

Yet they made no effort made to allay the Chinese community's fears about hudud and what would the MCA and other non-Malay BN components do, if UMNO decided to ride roughshod over them and hammered through the Muslim law.

What a sham and a shame was the public outcry against the errant MCA! Perhaps, it's true MCA members have no room left to hide their faces, they have to slink around in embarrassment due to the deafening silence from their own top leaders.

Welfare state now, not hudud anymore

PAS has made it clear it will never drop its goal of an Islamic state or hudud law. However, it has also made it clear that these lofty ambitions will remain its "long-term aspirations".

Taking into account the recent momentous policy change announced by PAS president Hadi Awang, where he pledged to make a "welfare state" that concentrates on fair wealth distribution and the weeding out of corruption the party's topmost struggle, it is clear that PAS will respect the wishes of the minority in Malaysia. Currently, non-Muslims and non-Malays make up some 40% of the 28-million population.

It is also clearly spelled out in the Pakatan's Common Policy Framework that partners PKR, PAS and DAP will abide by and uphold the existing Federal Constitution which provides for a secular nation. Any move to transform Malaysia into an Islamic state with hudud law would require a vote in Parliament, with a minimum two-thirds of the 222 lawmakers supportive of such a motion.

As a willing signatory to the Common Policy Framework, PAS knows this and it has accepted this reality, as witness Hadi's policy shift in declaring PAS a welfare state.

"It is perhaps toughest for PAS to swallow this proposition. All the more because hudud arguably has been the central thrust of PAS’s political messaging from time immemorial," PAS research director and Kuala Selangor assemblyman Dzulkefly Ahmad said his much-heralded oped A politicalcontest beyond Hudud published last week.

"In a rare exercise of intellectual renewal or ijtihad, PAS committed and shifted itself – prior to the 12th General Election 2008 – to a political trajectory and a manifesto of ‘Negara Berkebajikan’ (A Nation of Compassion and Opportunity) rather than the overworked concept of Islamic State."

The Devil in Dr M: A lack of moral compass

As Dzulkefly pointed out 'hudud' was the ‘be all and end all’ of virtually all Islamic political parties from the Jamaati Islami in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent to the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East and Masyumi et al and PAS in the Far-East. But the situation in the Muslim world was itself already changing.

"In tandem with the current ‘changing approach’ or ‘a generational shift’, to paraphrase professor Tariq Ramadan, of their counterparts – the Muslim Brotherhood post-Arab Spring experience, the Turkish Tayyib Erdogan-AK Party’s experiment on political Islam and Indonesia’s Parti Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS) – PAS has similarly registered its coming of age," Dzulkefly explained.

Like Dzulkefly, other Muslim leaders have since taken a swipe at Mahathir for what they deem to be his outrageous and unwanted 'solicitation' of PAS.

Mahathir's latest remarks just days after his hudud U-turn, where he appealed to Malaysian voters to stick with "the Devil they know", rather than the Angel again showed his "lack of moral compass", said Dzulkefly.

Not acceptable even as an electoral ploy: Clean politics, please

Staunchly against Hudud during his 22-year premiership, Mahathir had even threatened to impose Emergency rule in the form of a National Operation Council (Mageran) in Kelantan if the PAS-led state government had tried to implement hudud.

But last week, Mahathir suddenly changed his tune. He invited PAS to join hands with UMNO to implement Hudud as well as an Islamic state on the condition that PAS leaves Pakatan Rakyat.

"Even as an electoral ploy, this is not acceptable. It is the most unethical move and Mahathir is trying to tell PAS, 'you want hudud? OK, we'll give you hudud but you must gang up with UMNO. Then together, we can force Islamic state and hudud law down the throats of the non-Muslims and the non-Malays'," PKR vice president Chua Jui Meng told Malaysia Chronicle..

"This is an evil thought and Mahathir is certainly closer to the Devil than an Angel for even considering such a dark pact."

Hudud dowry

Indeed, with the 13th general election due to be held latest by June 2013, BN is running out of time and ideas as the Pakatan Rakyat led by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim continued to make gains on all fronts.

Under pressure, BN is stepping up attacks from all sides but to pundits, there seems to be "pretty bad coordination" amongst its component parties. MCA, the second largest BN party, was attacking hudud relentlessly while coalition boss UMNO was courting PAS and offering hudud and Islamic law as a dowry.

PAS has made it very clear that there would be no UMNO-PAS 'marriage'. It has called on UMNO members who are concerned about Islamic unity to quit their troubled and corruption-tainted party, and join PAS instead. PAS has not set any conditions except that fleeing UMNO members accept PAS' constitution and not demand for any  posts or seats to contest unless offered.

PAS has also said it would be happy to join BN if DAP and PKR can tag along. Now, that's a lesson in unity the BN should learn from Pakatan, say pundits who have become increasingly upset at the ruling coalition's clumsy and outrageous maneuvering.

Unity government but NO mergers

The very interesting question to ask is what would become of the MCA, MIC and Gerakan if UMNO opened the door to all three Pakatan parties. Already accused of being obsolete and irrelevant, their future is indeed bleak given the mounting popularity of the Pakatan trio.

Given UMNO's desperation to cling to power, such a possibility is not mere speculation at all. In fact, insiders have been talking about behind-the-scenes meetings and approaches for a while now.

Bogged down by mile-long corruption allegations, UMNO leaders are keen to seal deals that would help them avoid imprisonment and disgrace if the Pakatan wins the federal government. Certainly, UMNO leaders' first thoughts would be for themselves and not their BN colleagues.

It is the Pakatan that is now unwilling to "join up". Its leaders have made it clear they may consider a unity government but not a merger.

A unity government would mean a Cabinet consisting of Members of Parliament from both the winning and losing sides so that Malaysians as a whole could tap the best talent available to reform the nation and rebuild the badly ravaged economy.

Corruption topmost on the Malays' list of worries

There is little doubt that Mahathir’s mind-numbing remarks suggest UMNO is in "serious trouble". The once-proud party has given up on its non-Malay partners and is now focusing on winning the hearts and minds of the Muslim electorate.

Suddenly, religion has become the hottest topic and top priority in the political arena. But it looks like another 'no-go' or as some wits have put it - another UMNO "own goal". Malays are fed up of UMNO's non-stop drama and string of distasteful political plays.

Go into any coffee shop and ask around. Malays seem to be more concerned about the corruption allegations against UMNO and were deeply disappointed by the recent RM250mil NFC corruption debacle. Many believe Prime Minister Najib Razak had blatantly abused his power when he shielded UMNO Wanita chief Shahrizat Jalil, refusing to ask her to surrender her party post despite the mountain of evidence her family was involved in misusing public funds.

When Najib turned the government machinery against PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli for blowing the whistle on Shahrizat, arresting and charging him for allegedly breaching a confidentiality law, the PM's high-handedness was seen as the last straw.

As analysts have pointed out, Malays have their own innate sense of fair play. Najib's refusal to uphold what was right and punish what was wrong was another confirmation to them that it was time to boot out UMNO and give the PAS and PKR - which are also Malay dominated parties - a chance to govern the country.

This may be why the recent 'fatwa' (religious edict) issued by an obscure cleric to “Haram Sokong DAP” (Forbidden to Support DAP) has not gone down well. Most Malays feel the fatwa was a mockery of Islam itself and are disturbed by such blatant use of religion for political mileage and gain.

Their fears were compounded when the issuing cleric had the gall to also declare it wasn’t forbidden to support the MCA and MIC. Yet MCA and the predominantly Hindu MIC are openly against 'hudud', with the MCA having vowed to leave BN if UMNO passed hudud laws.

Losers 

The hudud fire that Mahathir started is now blazing and nearly out of control. Everyone is waiting for MCA’s next move but no one really believes it will do anything except to try and turn attention from itself by attacking DAP, PKR and PAS on other issues.

But after the MCA's daily exhortations to DAP to "control" PAS, the Chinese community are asking the MCA back - what is it doing to control its own coalition partner UMNO?

MCA and UMNO - the two biggest parties in the BN coalition - may well be the biggest losers of Mahathir's unguarded words. His hudud offer has torn away the last shreds of their political masks. Their last inch of credibility has hit zero.

As for the troublemaker himself? Well, it is time for Mahathir to accept that his days of thunder have long disappeared. Many Malaysians had hoped he could have made himself a national treasure by offering selfless guidance as the country moved into its most rocky economic phase.

National bankruptcy by 2019 is much much closer than most Malaysians realize due to the huge amounts of wealth siphoned out of the country especially during the Najib administration when UMNO top guns were givencarte blance to go for the 'last grab' and make the 'final plunder'.

But Mahathir has too much to hide. He has too much baggage to protect. He cannot be what he is not. Truly, if there is anyone who symbolizes the worst effects of the UMNO-BN's 55-year rule, 87-year-old Mahathir fits the bill. A sad legacy indeed.

Malaysia Chronicle