Lunas: The National Front
Misses The Point Again
The Lunas
byelection, as the Prime Minister knows, was not about Chinese perfidy or Indian
ungratefulness, but of Malay alienation. It was not the National Front that met
immediately after it lost in Lunas, nor the MIC, but UMNO. That it lasted four
hours said more than the Prime Minister's incoherent, wanton, unjustified attacks on the
Chinese. The National Front decided, wrongly, that the Chinese held the balance,
but the Chinese parties, the MCA and Gerakan, did not or would not campaign, leaving it
to UMNO cabinet ministers to convince the Chinese about Vision schools of which they
already were suspicious. The Gerakan, with better sensitive ground rapport amongst
the Chinese than the MCA could ever hope for, was sidelined, and stayed away. The
MCA went about it half-heartedly. The Opposition -- PAS, KeAdilan, and, in the
closing stages, DAP -- took the
issue head on, with Chinese educationists and the
Suqiu NGO in its corner -- and made mincemeat of the National Front's tepid responses.
The Indian were taken for granted, as a "fixed deposit" for the National
Front.
This angered both communities, and forced enough Chinese and Indian voters to
have the opposition's Saifuddin Nasution Ismail as their state assemblyman.
In
the ten days of the campaign, the Malay community, alienated and with anger rising by
the day, was ignored. Even the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad
Badawi, had doors shut in his face. One minister, after Friday prayers shook hands with
the congregation, the first ten warmly but the eleventh, a policeman still in service,
brusquely slapped away his proferred hand. This is not isolated. The Malay,
not the Chinese or Indian, caused the National Front angst. The Malays, not the
Chinese nor the Indians, who waylaid the 12 buses of out-of-state tourists from all over
the country who came to help, when campaigning was no longer allowed, on election day.
A random sample of those who came were not voters in the constituency.
But this
is exactly how the National Front busses in phantom voters in past elections, as UMNO
members confirm. The opposition, especially those in KeADILan, helped organise
this when in UMNO, and knew exactly how they operate. Too many crocodile tears are
shed, by the Prime Minister and other stalwarts in the National Front. But can it
deny the police escorted the buses out of Lunas precisely because they were phantom
voters. Whether these poor souls had to suffer hunger pangs is irrelevant.
The unmentioned issue in Lunas, however much the National Front might deny, is the
continued incarceration of the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
When the Attorney-General said he would proceed with the other five charges after the
result of his appeal to the Federal Court later this month, it raised the political
temperature, not just in Lunas.
On 09 December 00, the PAS MP, Mr Mahfuz Omar, is
released from a month in jail, refusing to pay the RM1,000 fine in lieu. Plans are
afoot to have as large a crowd that gathered in Jalan Kebun in Klang on 5
November to
welcome him home from Kajang Prison. The Malay ground shifts inexorably from the
National Front and UMNO. And all because it mishandled the dismissal of Dato' Seri
Anwar Ibrahim. Today, it all but
consumes it, with the Malay ground moving away
for its humiliation, as Malay culture does not allow, of him. The Prime Minister
is caught in a trap of his own making. He did not dare to campaign in Lunas for
the flak he would have got. His minister made asinine statements, which reflected
both their stupidity and idiocy and consequent voter anger that they take him to be as
stupid and idiotic as they are. And the incredible campaign
which alienated
even more voters beggars belief.
When the Prime Minister's photos dominated, it
was a matter of time before Dato' Seri Anwar's, with his infamous black eye, appeared.
It is at this point that the battle was lost, even if the MIC had won. His
reaction
about his photo is revealing: All prime minister had done so, including the first,
Tengku Abdul Rahman, so why not he? That one sentence reflected the arrogance, the
supercilliousness, the irrelevance of the National Front campaign. For UMNO now to
consider rewriting the election laws because the opposition met them on a level playing
field and won, and throw scorn on the Chinese for treachery, is a sign of not strength
in a functioning democracy but fear that all is about to be lost. It is hoist on its own
petard. In the past, the National Front treated the opposition as the latter looks
at it now. With this one proviso, the Malay is firmly in its corner. The
National Front can have solid Chinese and Malay support, but its hold on power remains
tentative.
The Prime Minister grudgingly admits he is the cause of the defeat.
But he then accuses every one else for the Lunas defeat. It is he and his
coalition partners who raised both race and religion as an election issue. They would
not allow the election, with all its boisterousness and exuberance, to wend its way to a
successful conclusion. This angered them more. The opposition did not give
them the opportunity to crack down on
them by force. It is the National Front,
not the Alternative Front, which harps on race and religion. It is the National
Front which accuses the Chinese and Indians of extremism and worse. Its views,
especially on
Vision schools, is challenged, with the MCA and Gerakan sitting on the
sidelines; it does not bother to explain it to the Chinese educationists'
satisfaction, then brand them extremists, and the MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong
Sik, adding fuel to fire by announcing the first two vision schools. But he still
would not explain to the Chinese educationists what the Vision school is about.
But
the demonisation of the Chinese community is to attract the racist support of the Malay.
It does not work. The Malay still is suspicious of the Prime Minister and his
administration. And now the Chinese ground slips away. The National Front
gives the impression these days that only it has the solution, and what it wants it must
get, even if what it seeks is a pie in the sky not even it knows what it is all about. I
found it curious that it is UMNO, not the National Front, that met to discuss Lunas.
It proves what the MCA and MIC presidents desperately tries to disprove: that it
is UMNO, not the National Front, that calls the shots. That it is UMNO, not the
MCA or MIC, that shivers when the Chinese in Lunas did not back the MIC candidate, and
the Malay opposition was returned. Changing the election laws because the Prime
Minister is forced to accept responsibility, and blaming the opposition for the fall out
of the race and religious issues it paraded, does not change the ground seismic shifts.
It is Malay alienation that UMNO and the National Front should look at, not blame the
Chinese for its own ill-thought out policies that angers the community. Would the
Prime Minister dare to address a political gathering in Lunas now? Or in his own
parliamentary constituency of Kubang Pasu? Or, indeed, explain to the Malays who
seek answers why Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim ought to remain destroyed. If he does,
he would know at first hand why Lunas was lost. In short, the National Front
misses the point again. And why Dr Ling Liong Sik and Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu
should be dismissed for the barking dogs they are.
M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my
