Why Mahathir sees BN leaders risking jail

Transparency, public accountability, conflict of trust, abuse of power and criminal breach of trust are major issues.

COMMENT

Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s statement that Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders are at risk of being carted off to jail if the opposition alliance, Pakatan Rakyat, seizes the reins of power in Putrajaya, should come as no surprise. He has referred to an open secret: BN leaders are crooks who have been shielded so far by the system and the establishment. It won’t be surprising if the police go after Mahathir next.

One of the checks-and-balances in a democracy is for the people to change the ruling party every two or three terms. That has not happened in Malaysia since 1957 basically owing to the power of incumbency which, armed with a two-thirds majority in Parliament, facilitates gerrymandering of the electoral boundaries. Strong government, meaning a two-thirds majority in Parliament, has always been the battle cry of BN until the urban voters realized in 2008 that there was something amiss here.

In the United States for example, the law states that no President can stay in office for more than two terms, each term being for four years. The presidential elections are held on fixed dates every four years and the swearing-in is always on January 20.

Once voters in Malaysia realize the importance of changing the ruling party on a regular basis, no party will be in power for more than two or three terms. Some parties may even have a very short life in government as in Italy where the government used to fall every month. The BN is living on borrowed time.

All this has nothing to do with race or religion, the usual scare tactics trotted out by the party in power, but issues close to the heart of the electorate. Some major issues are transparency, public accountability, and conflict of trust, abuse of power and criminal breach of trust.

Hence, Mahathir’s fears that BN leaders are risking jail by keeping Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak who, he’s convinced, will lead them to defeat. The remedy: kick the scandal-ridden Najib out and bring in someone who will lead the BN to victory again in 2018. Even if the new Prime Minister too faces defeat at the 14th General Election, he will have time between now and then to put the government “in order”. That, Mahathir reckons, will make it doubly difficult for Pakatan to cart BN leaders off to jail.

Sarawak is a case in point. Taib Mahmud, now the Governor, was in office as Chief Minister for an unprecedented 33 years. He succeeded his maternal uncle, Abdul Rahman Yakub, who was Chief Minister for ten years until a rebellion by Supp Assemblymen drove him out from power.

The result of the uncle and nephew being in power for more than four decades was the reduction in the status of the Dayaks, the majority community in Sarawak, to nursing the dubious distinction of being hewers of wood and drawers of water for others.

The Sarawak Foundation for example, getting its considerable revenues from timber concessions on Dayak land, has never had a Dayak on its Board of Governors since its inception 50 years ago. There are also complaints that Dayaks don’t get scholarships from the Foundation. The purpose of the Foundation was to hand out scholarships to poor but deserving students. The Dayaks are the poorest in Sarawak which is already the poorest state in Malaysia.

In Sarawak, the Dayak dilemma stems from the fact that the Federal Government imposed rule by proxy facilitated by colonial divide and rule tactics. All Muslim seats are allocated under the BN concept of power-sharing to Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), Chinese seats to the Sarawak United People’s Party (Supp) and Dayaks seats chopped up among all parties in the ruling coalition.

If the voters in Sarawak are to see a change of the ruling party, the Dayaks must abandon the BN. Then, Mahathir’s fears will come true in Sarawak as well.

The gravy train has come to the rescue of Najib who refuses to quit as PM.

International laws, in place since 911, define money laundering as one having assets in excess of what one could legitimately accumulate over a lifetime. Yet, when it comes to this definition of money laundering, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) seems to be helpless.

The MACC investigated Taib for corruption, not once but twice, and declared him clean. The position it took was that Taib had followed proper procedures when awarding government contracts. The MACC doesn’t consider whether such procedures were fair. In short, procedural fairness doesn’t enter the picture.

The MACC itself was virtually conceding that their hands were tied when it comes to institutionalized corruption. The World Bank refers to this phenomenon as mispricing, a euphemism. Government contracts are going for twice, thrice, and even up to ten times what it should cost the tax payers. The difference goes into the pockets of a handful of people who dole out some crumbs now and then to their followers and the smaller BN component parties i.e. not Umno or PBB.

This is the gravy train which has come to the rescue of Najib as he tries to withstand increasing pressure from Mahathir to step down. Mahathir’s call is legitimate.

Pakatan tries to match the BN in its election manifesto. In fact, it doesn’t have to play the game by the BN’s rules. All it has to do is to declare to the voters that BN leaders will be investigated for the past nearly 60 years, and brought to justice. Pakatan can say that it will review all development plans introduced by the BN, keep what can be kept, scrap others, and bring in its own plans for the future. These plans can be revealed once Pakatan is in power in Putrajaya.