Dirty Tricks Department and the 1969 elections — Ahmad Mustapha Hassan

By the year 1965, I had completed five years service with the Kedah state government, the minimum period of service for state scholarship holders. I was therefore free to leave the service. I applied for a post at the Ministry of External Affairs and was accepted. I wanted national and international exposure. My last post in Kedah was as Secretary of the Sungai Petani Town Council which also involved overseeing all local councils in the District of Kuala Muda. 

I had to undergo an interview with a Special Branch officer to get clearance to join the service. Although I got through the security screening, I did not join the service as I was persuaded to become the Political Secretary to Senu Abdul Rahman who was then the Minister of Information and Broadcasting.

It was a challenging job as not only had I to do political work for the minister, I was also at the same time doing some press work, writing for the Department of Information bulletin and also for Radio talks.

I was also elected to the Umno Youth central executive committee. The Umno Youth leader was my minister Senu Abdul Rahman and the deputy was Ali Haji Ahmad, my senior at the University of Malaya in Singapore.

I was tasked by Umno Youth to take part in various workshops to prepare the youth members for work in promoting government policies and agenda and also to prepare them for the general election. They should be well prepared to answer questions from the public on what the government was doing.

We targeted Kelantan in our political work as the PMIP was strong there. Most workshops were held there. During that period of time, we were not paid by the party to carry out these activities nor could we claim from the Ministry for doing outside jobs. We had therefore to carry out some ministry work in order to justify our claims. As political secretaries we were paid in total RM1,350 a month.

In Kelantan, we had to identify PMIP strongholds and what tactics had to be used to curtail their influence and if possible to isolate these areas in a way that would stop them from being able to come out and vote. In the plan, suggestions were put that communication to and from these villages be cut off during election time — destroy bridges for example.

Thus the foundation for dirty tricks department was established. This department grew and grew till today and used tactics as dirty as they possibly could be. The current RCI in Sabah has given some insight into what could be achieved.

Mostly, the political work had been concentrated in the rural areas as Umno feared that the rural population would turn to PMIP as religious issues were being used as bait to attract support. Umno had been very secular and urbane during this period of time. 

The lifestyle had been very liberal. Almost at every function, drinks were liberally served and the “joget’ was a very popular form of dance. There was much gaiety and merry-making at all these functions.

Preparations were more or less progressing well towards achieving victory for the ‘69 elections. Prospective candidates for the State and Parliamentary constituencies were being finalised.

I was hoping very earnestly that the leadership would consider me as a candidates for Parliament. I had contributed a lot to the party and I had also been shunted around to strengthen the government administration. On paper, my chances were very positive.

I had a call, however, from Umno Headquarters which was then situated at Batu Road (now Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman) near the Chow Kit market that I had not been chosen. According to Musa Hitam  (Tun) who was then the Umno Executive Secretary, saying that Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, the President, had opined that I did not merit to be a candidate.

I thought he would have forgotten what I wrote for Fajar, the University of Malaya (Singapore) Socialist Club organ when I was the then President. I had written that Malaya would move towards being more feudal with Tunku heading the government. Definitely, he did not forget what I had written.

The only senior Umno leader that came to my defence was Khir Johari, a key cabinet minister in Tunku’s cabinet and a Kedahan. He tried to coax me into accepting an alternative seat but at state level. He would recommend me to be a candidate for a Kedah State seat. As I had already worked on a parliamentary constituency in Kedah which I knew I would stand a good chance of winning it was however offered to Mohamad Zahir Ismail (Tun), (later a five-term Speaker of Parliament) who lost to the PMIP candidate Mawardi.

Khir’s offer was for me to stand in the state seat of Sala. To me that would be suicidal and I told him so. He said that when I won I would be made political secretary to the Menteri Besar. To me, that was not much of an attraction. The seat was completely ‘black’ and the reward for securing the seat for Umno, a Political Secretary’s post to the MB? To me that was too much of a joke.

I would stand, I told him, if the position of Deputy MB was offered to me but he said that was not possible. He told me not to bargain but I knew that in Umno, one had to bargain and secure a firm assurance because things would be forgotten quickly after the elections.

Another candidate was put in my place and he lost to the PMIP candidate who was also the division head for the Kedah Padi Planters’ Association.

The outcome of the 1969 elections was a complete shock to the Alliance Party. Obviously the dirty tricks department had failed in its job. 

According to Wikipedia, this was the result:

General elections were held in Malaysia on 10 May 1969, although voting was postponed until between 21 and 27 June in Sabah and Sarawak. It resulted in the return to power, with a reduced majority, of the ruling Alliance Party, comprising the United Malays National Organisation (Umno), the Malayan Chinese Association, and the Malayan Indian Congress. The Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (Gerakan) and the Democratic Action Party (DAP), which had campaigned against Bumiputra privileges outlined by Article 153 of the Constitution, made major gains in the election. Voter turnout was 73.6 per cent.

The Alliance won only 77 seats out of 140.

Incidentally my Minister also lost his seat.