Kemelut Politik di Negeri Perak Darul Ridzuan sebenarnya telah berjaya menunjukkan sikap sebenar “Wakil Rakyat” yang telah dilantik apabila menang didalam Pilihanraya (sama ada diperingkat Dewan Undangan Negeri ataupun Persekutuan).
Persoalan yang perlu kita semua bincangkan dengan RASIONAL adalah, bagaimana mengklasifikasikan istilah dan konsep “Wakil Rakyat” itu sebenarnya.
1. Adakah “Wakil Rakyat” itu sebenarnya mewakili rakyat, dirinya ataupun partai yang didukunginya?2. Adakah “Wakil Rakyat” itu boleh bertindak tanpa mendapat pungutan suara (konsensus) daripada rakyat yang diwakilnya?3. Adakah “Wakil Rakyat” boleh dibenarkan melompat partai (tanpa dikenakan apa-apa tindakan).
Baiklah,
Disini mari kita bincangkan perkara yang pertama iaitu Adakah “Wakil Rakyat” itu sebenarnya mewakili rakyat, dirinya ataupun partai yang didukunginya?. Berdasarkan istilah dan perkataan “Wakil Rakyat” itu sendiri, maka adalah sewajarnya jawatan yang didukunginya disandarkan kepada tugasan untuk mewakili rakyat dalam apa jua keadaan. Oleh itu seorang “Wakil Rakyat” tidak boleh merasakan jawatan yang didukunginya hanyalah untuk dirinya ataupun untuk parti yang dianggotainya.
Maka segala tindak tanduknya perlulah mendapat persetujuan dari rakyat yang diwakilinya secara konsensus tanpa beliau bertindak sendirian. Ini kerana beliau mendapat jawatan tersebut atas undi yang telah rakyat berikan semasa pilihanraya. Tanpa persetujuan rakyat yang diwakilinya, maka sewajarnya tindakan yang dilakukan olehnya boleh dipertikaikan malah boleh dicabar di mahkamah. Hanya pengundi berdaftar bagi kawasan “Wakil Rakyat” tersebut boleh mencabar tindakan “Wakil Rakyat” mereka sekiranya tindakan “Wakil Rakyat” tersebut tidak mendapat mandat rakyat.
Bagi tindakan “Wakil Rakyat” melompat parti, kita tidak boleh (disegi undang-undang) untuk menyekat tindakan ini selagi mana tidak dikuatkuasakan undang-undang anti lompat parti. Mana-mana orang perseorangan boleh keluar masuk mana-mana persatuan ataupun pertubuhan tanpa sekatan dibawah Undang-Undang Malaysia.
Namun apa yang boleh dipertikaikan kini adalah bagi kes “Wakil Rakyat” yang bertindak melompat parti ataupun mengesahkan bahawa beliau telah menjadi “Wakil Rakyat Bebas”, beliau sepatutnya membayar kembali;
1. Yuran Pertaruhan bagi pilihanraya yang telah dilangsungkan (biasanya yuran ini disediakan oleh parti yang didokonginya semasa pilihanraya)2. Kos-kos berkaitan pilihanraya (poster, banting, kos operasi dan sebagainya)3. Denda (sekiranya ada mengikut perlembagaan setiap parti) bagi sesiapa yang keluar daripada parti
Bayaran ini perlulah diperjelaskan sebelum tindakan melompat parti (keluar dari parti) diambil dan ianya perlulah dikira bersekali dengan faedah-faedah (interest) lain sekiranya wajar (bagi pilihanraya yang telah dilangsungkan lebih dari setahun.
Dan sewajarnya bagi mana-mana “Wakil Rakyat” yang melompat parti, adalah perlu mereka mengosongkan kerusi yang diduduki bagi membolehkan rakyat dikawasan tersebut membuat pemilihan mereka sendiri dengan seadil-adilnya. Jika Suruhanjaya Pilihanraya (SPR) tidak membenarkan satu pilihanraya yang baharu dilakukan, maka satu saman bolehlah dibuat oleh mana-mana pengundi berdaftar (bagi kawasan yang mana wakil rakyatnya telah melompat parti) terhadap Suruhanjaya Pilihanraya.
Para pengundi sebenarnya mempunyai hak yang amat luas didalam perundangan Malaysia jika mereka mahu menggunakan kuasa yang ada pada mereka. Malah Suruhanjaya Pilihanraya tidak boleh membatalkan mana-mana saman yang dibuat oleh para pengundi melainkan setelah hakim berpuas hati dengan hujah-hujah kedua belah pihak (para pengundi dan Suruhanjaya Pilihanraya).
Kerajaan (negeri ataupun persekutuan) adalah direkabentuk untuk rakyat dan sewajarnya perlu mendapat mandat rakyat seadilnya. Oleh yang demikian sewajarnya setiap perubahan dalam organisasi Kerajaan (negeri ataupun persekutuan) perlulah mendapat konsensus rakyat (yang biasanya diperolehi melalui satu pilihanraya).
Biarpun kuasa untuk memperkenankan pembubaran DUN/Parlimen terletak dibahu para Sultan dan sebagainya, namun bagi mendapatkan sesuatu keputusan yang yang adil, maka perlulah para Sultan dan sebagainya melaksanakan perkenan tersebut dan membubarkan DUN/Parlimen supaya satu pilihanraya yang adil boleh diadakan.
Dan tindakan yang dilakukan oleh Sultan Azlan Muhibbuddin Shah (bagi kes politik di Negeri Perak Darul Ridzuan) adalah bersalahan dengan keperluan perlembagaan bagi mendapatkan satu Kerajaan Negeri yang adil serta mendapat mandat rakyat (pengundi). Oleh yang demikian tindakan Sultan Azlan Muhibbuddin Shah ini boleh dicabar dari sudut perundangan.
Saya sedia maklum bahawa Sultan Azlan Muhibbuddin Shah adalah bekas Ketua Hakim Negara, namun ianya tidak bermaksud bahawa beliau maksum daripada terkhilaf ketika menafsirkan undang-undang serta perlembagaan itu sendiri, sepertimana diri saya sendiri yang mungkin ada terkhilaf ketika memberikan pandangan serta komentar.
Walau apa pun pandangan saya, saya tetap rakyat Negeri Perak Darul Ridzuan dan masih menerima pakai frasa “Yang Adil Disembah, Yang Zalim Disanggah”, biarpun mungkin ada pihak beranggapan bahawasanya saya telah menderkaha kepada Sultan.
Ketua Perusuh
Bekas Felo KananInstitut Kajian Strategik Dan Antarabangsa - ISIS
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
The Monkey Handler
M. Bakri Musa
www.bakrimusa.com
In the few months that he has before assuming office I would have expected Prime Minister-in-waiting Najib Razak to be focused on forming his new leadership team and formulating his major policies. Instead there he was in Perak smirking with renegade state politicians who had crossed over to his Barisan coalition. Najib looked like a mischievous monkey handler who had successfully enticed a couple of wily monyets from the neighbor’s coconut tree to his.
In these perilous times Najib is more a slimy backroom political operative consumed with concocting shady deals than a national leader ready to steer the nation through tough economic and other challenges. This latest and unneeded upheaval in Perak only adds to Malaysia’s already muddled political climate, and comes at a time when the nation can ill afford this distraction. Najib is oblivious of the evolving global economic disaster and its inevitable impact on Malaysia.
These handlers too behave like the monkeys they keep. After finishing his latest act in Perak, Najib stayed away. The monkey handler’s interest, like that of the monkeys they keep, was only in creating mischief. Once that is achieved, then he is gone so as to avoid getting entangled.
Initially Najib had planned to join in the Chinese New Year celebration in Ipoh to soak in what he expected would be a sea of public applause to his latest monkey act. Instead because of the unanticipated sea change in public mood, Najib wisely skipped the event. At least he knew when and where he would no longer be welcomed.
Najib should remember that Abdullah Badawi rode into office with the highest approval ratings, and an untainted “Mr. Clean” image to boot. Yet today, less than five years later, Abdullah is being pushed out of office, and his legacy is anything but clean. Najib has yet to assume office and already his approval rating is under 50 percent, and his public image severely tainted by assorted sordid scandals. His public portraits are now being used for stomping muddy shoes. Rest assured that these are only the beginning.
A Chinese proverb has it that it takes three generations to destroy an enterprise. The first starts it; the second builds on it; while the pampered third squanders it. Najib Razak is determined to truncate that process. He is set to destroy a once proud and successful organization – UMNO – which his late father was so instrumental in starting and building.
Najib will bring UMNO down with him, as prophesied by some ancient soothsayer’s “RAHMAN” theory of leadership. The challenge is to ensure that UMNO’s inevitable implosion under Najib would not also take Malaysia down with it.
Our Cultural Burden
If not for his family and political pedigrees, Najib Razak would today be like thousands of other Malays with similar qualifications, nothing more than a midlevel functionary in the civil service or one of the many Government-linked companies.
He was just old enough when his father died to benefit from the generosities and tributes of a nation in need to express them in gratitude to a great patriot that was his father. Remembering the father’s many great deeds, the nation could not do enough for his son; hence Najib meteoric rise.
The dilemma with having your path smoothed out for you is that once you reach the top, there is no one there to grease the trail ahead. From then on you are on your own, and you ill prepared for it.
It is our cultural tradition that such generosities and tributes are showered almost exclusively upon the first-born son. The assumption is that he is the carrier of the father’s traits. This of course is not unique to Malay culture; nor is there a biological basis to that assumption.
I wish we had not been a slave to our culture. By all means shower our gratitude to the late Tun Razak’s family, but then let us be more prudent and choose the smartest or most promising from among his five children to groom, not necessarily only the first born.
Tun Razak’s other sons are way head and shoulders above Najib. The youngest, Nazir, is a banker. Even though he is not a politician, nonetheless his public utterances reflect not only a first-rate mind but also someone very much aware of the many challenges facing our nation. He has also put forth novel ideas on solving them. Unfortunately, Najib is culturally constrained from taking advice from his youngest brother Nazir.
Last year Nazir suggested granting amnesty to corrupt individuals in return for their confessions and making good their loot, prior to implementing tougher laws. To say that it was a radical idea would be an understatement but on reflection, there is considerable merit to his suggestion. At the very least we would get a measure of the magnitude of the problem and its infinite variations. That could help us design better laws and ways to combat the scourge.
Recently Nazir chastised the leadership for not going beyond orthodox fiscal stimulus and monetary measures to meet the current economic crisis. He suggested re-examining the New Economic Policy, with particular reference to minimizing its drag on the economy. He also called for greater collaborations with the emerging giant economies in the region, specifically China, India and the Middle East. Most of all I like his idea of attracting foreign talents, especially into the education sector.
These are the kinds of innovative thinking we yearn from our leaders, not their endless monkeying around with fence-hopping politicians. In chastising the “leadership,” Nazir has shown that he is not constrained by our cultural norms; he has in effect criticized his oldest brother’s leadership.
Monkey Story
There was this story of a peddler of hats who one day fell asleep under a tree in the heat of the day. When he woke up, his hats were all gone except for the one on his head. On looking up he saw the monkeys in the tree with hats. The peddler tried all manner of tricks to induce those monkeys to part with their newfound toys, but to no avail. In disgust he threw his hat to the ground and stomped off. In the finest “monkey see, monkey do” mode, the apes did the same, and that was how the peddler recovered his merchandise.
A generation later it was the peddler’s son who fell asleep under the same tree. He too lost his hats to the monkeys. Remembering the lesson imparted from his father, the young man threw his hat to the ground. At which point the monkeys laughed at him. “You are not getting your hats back,” they scoffed, “we learned your trick from our parents!”
When Najib enticed those monkeys of politics to Barisan, he stole a play from Anwar Ibrahim’s game book. Anwar may rightly feel flattered by Najib’s imitating, or more correctly, aping. However, like the hat-peddler’s son, Najib may have learned his lesson well but what he may not realize is that those political monkeys too had learned their lessons! They are making a monkey of Najib.
When you have a bunch of monkeys and an equally mischievous as well as irresponsible handler, there is no telling what lasting damage they could inflict. It is time to let Najib out of his monkey business and free those monyet under his keep to once again roam the jungle where they belong. If out of habit they still hang around us waiting for their bananas and making a pest of themselves, then we should kill a rooster or two. That would scare away those monkeys.
M. Bakri Musa
www.bakrimusa.com
In the few months that he has before assuming office I would have expected Prime Minister-in-waiting Najib Razak to be focused on forming his new leadership team and formulating his major policies. Instead there he was in Perak smirking with renegade state politicians who had crossed over to his Barisan coalition. Najib looked like a mischievous monkey handler who had successfully enticed a couple of wily monyets from the neighbor’s coconut tree to his.
In these perilous times Najib is more a slimy backroom political operative consumed with concocting shady deals than a national leader ready to steer the nation through tough economic and other challenges. This latest and unneeded upheaval in Perak only adds to Malaysia’s already muddled political climate, and comes at a time when the nation can ill afford this distraction. Najib is oblivious of the evolving global economic disaster and its inevitable impact on Malaysia.
These handlers too behave like the monkeys they keep. After finishing his latest act in Perak, Najib stayed away. The monkey handler’s interest, like that of the monkeys they keep, was only in creating mischief. Once that is achieved, then he is gone so as to avoid getting entangled.
Initially Najib had planned to join in the Chinese New Year celebration in Ipoh to soak in what he expected would be a sea of public applause to his latest monkey act. Instead because of the unanticipated sea change in public mood, Najib wisely skipped the event. At least he knew when and where he would no longer be welcomed.
Najib should remember that Abdullah Badawi rode into office with the highest approval ratings, and an untainted “Mr. Clean” image to boot. Yet today, less than five years later, Abdullah is being pushed out of office, and his legacy is anything but clean. Najib has yet to assume office and already his approval rating is under 50 percent, and his public image severely tainted by assorted sordid scandals. His public portraits are now being used for stomping muddy shoes. Rest assured that these are only the beginning.
A Chinese proverb has it that it takes three generations to destroy an enterprise. The first starts it; the second builds on it; while the pampered third squanders it. Najib Razak is determined to truncate that process. He is set to destroy a once proud and successful organization – UMNO – which his late father was so instrumental in starting and building.
Najib will bring UMNO down with him, as prophesied by some ancient soothsayer’s “RAHMAN” theory of leadership. The challenge is to ensure that UMNO’s inevitable implosion under Najib would not also take Malaysia down with it.
Our Cultural Burden
If not for his family and political pedigrees, Najib Razak would today be like thousands of other Malays with similar qualifications, nothing more than a midlevel functionary in the civil service or one of the many Government-linked companies.
He was just old enough when his father died to benefit from the generosities and tributes of a nation in need to express them in gratitude to a great patriot that was his father. Remembering the father’s many great deeds, the nation could not do enough for his son; hence Najib meteoric rise.
The dilemma with having your path smoothed out for you is that once you reach the top, there is no one there to grease the trail ahead. From then on you are on your own, and you ill prepared for it.
It is our cultural tradition that such generosities and tributes are showered almost exclusively upon the first-born son. The assumption is that he is the carrier of the father’s traits. This of course is not unique to Malay culture; nor is there a biological basis to that assumption.
I wish we had not been a slave to our culture. By all means shower our gratitude to the late Tun Razak’s family, but then let us be more prudent and choose the smartest or most promising from among his five children to groom, not necessarily only the first born.
Tun Razak’s other sons are way head and shoulders above Najib. The youngest, Nazir, is a banker. Even though he is not a politician, nonetheless his public utterances reflect not only a first-rate mind but also someone very much aware of the many challenges facing our nation. He has also put forth novel ideas on solving them. Unfortunately, Najib is culturally constrained from taking advice from his youngest brother Nazir.
Last year Nazir suggested granting amnesty to corrupt individuals in return for their confessions and making good their loot, prior to implementing tougher laws. To say that it was a radical idea would be an understatement but on reflection, there is considerable merit to his suggestion. At the very least we would get a measure of the magnitude of the problem and its infinite variations. That could help us design better laws and ways to combat the scourge.
Recently Nazir chastised the leadership for not going beyond orthodox fiscal stimulus and monetary measures to meet the current economic crisis. He suggested re-examining the New Economic Policy, with particular reference to minimizing its drag on the economy. He also called for greater collaborations with the emerging giant economies in the region, specifically China, India and the Middle East. Most of all I like his idea of attracting foreign talents, especially into the education sector.
These are the kinds of innovative thinking we yearn from our leaders, not their endless monkeying around with fence-hopping politicians. In chastising the “leadership,” Nazir has shown that he is not constrained by our cultural norms; he has in effect criticized his oldest brother’s leadership.
Monkey Story
There was this story of a peddler of hats who one day fell asleep under a tree in the heat of the day. When he woke up, his hats were all gone except for the one on his head. On looking up he saw the monkeys in the tree with hats. The peddler tried all manner of tricks to induce those monkeys to part with their newfound toys, but to no avail. In disgust he threw his hat to the ground and stomped off. In the finest “monkey see, monkey do” mode, the apes did the same, and that was how the peddler recovered his merchandise.
A generation later it was the peddler’s son who fell asleep under the same tree. He too lost his hats to the monkeys. Remembering the lesson imparted from his father, the young man threw his hat to the ground. At which point the monkeys laughed at him. “You are not getting your hats back,” they scoffed, “we learned your trick from our parents!”
When Najib enticed those monkeys of politics to Barisan, he stole a play from Anwar Ibrahim’s game book. Anwar may rightly feel flattered by Najib’s imitating, or more correctly, aping. However, like the hat-peddler’s son, Najib may have learned his lesson well but what he may not realize is that those political monkeys too had learned their lessons! They are making a monkey of Najib.
When you have a bunch of monkeys and an equally mischievous as well as irresponsible handler, there is no telling what lasting damage they could inflict. It is time to let Najib out of his monkey business and free those monyet under his keep to once again roam the jungle where they belong. If out of habit they still hang around us waiting for their bananas and making a pest of themselves, then we should kill a rooster or two. That would scare away those monkeys.
Nik Aziz pohon supaya Sultan terima nasihat dari yang layak
KOTA BHARU, 6 Feb:
Mursyidul Am PAS, Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat berkata, status Institusi Raja akan terjejas di mata rakyat kalau Raja mendengar dan akur menerima nasihat (advise) dari orang lain.Bagi beliau, Menteri Besar dalam sesebuah negeri adalah mewakili rakyat dalam sesebuah negeri untuk disembah kepada Raja."Orang lain, walau PM sekalipun adalah orang luar. Kalau tidak begitu maka akan timbul bermacam-macam krisis dan huru hara," katanya dalam kenyataannya hari ini.Berikut adalah kenyataan penuh beliau:Raja dan demokrasi
1. Menteri Besar dalam sesebuah negeri adalah mewakili rakyat dalam sesebuah negeri untuk disembah kepada Raja. Orang lain, walau PM sekalipun adalah orang luar. Kalau tidak begitu maka akan timbul bermacam-macam krisis dan huru hara. Ini termasuklah siri-siri jenayah dan pencolekan seperti yang berlaku ke atas Menteri Besar Terengganu, Daud Samad dan beberapa Wakil Rakyat di Negeri Kelantan di tahun 1960an.
2. Di zaman Tun Dr. Mahathir, Institusi Raja terjejas teruk dan jangan-jangan ia terjejas lagi di kali ini. Ucapan saya ketika di Parlimen di masa itu antara lain berbunyi: “Orang politik akan menjadi Raja/Presiden di masa hadapan. Puncanya kerana peribadi sebahagian Raja-Raja itu sendiri.”
3. Sistem Beraja tidak menjadi semakin bertambah. Hendaklah diingati benar-benar bahawa sistem Beraja semakin hari semakin berkurangan. Bertambah tidak. Dunia boleh saksikan sendiri bagaimana Raja Nepal di Katmandu, Sultan Hussein di Singapura, Hamingkubuwono di Indonesia, Sultan Kudrat di Filipina, Al-Malik Farouk di Mesir, Shah Iran di Iran, Maharaja China di Negeri China, Maharaja Yaman di Yaman, Iraq, India dan seluruh Benua Eropah. Kini, mereka hanya tinggal sejarah.
4. Jadi, Institusi Raja di Malaysia perlu berhati-hati benar.
5. Saya sayangkan Institusi Raja kerana saya tahu bahawa rakyat hormatkan Rajanya. Saya sendiri dapat merasakannya kerana saya sendiri juga daripada keturunan Raja Jembal. Selain daripada menghormati saya dari aspek-aspek yang lain khususnya dari hal agama, mereka hormat saya kerana saya juga datang dari keturunan ini.
6. Tegasnya semua pihak perlu berhati-hati dalam menangani krisis yang cuba dicetuskan oleh pihak-pihak yang berkepentingan di luar dari Negeri Perak. Ingatlah, Allah Maha Berkuasa diatas segala sesuatu dan Allah tidak akan berpihak kepada pihak yang berbuat kezaliman. Sebaliknya, Allah akan menurunkan bantuan kepada mereka yang dikhianati dan mereka yang ditindas. Firman Allah S.W.T. bermaksud : “Maka orang-orang yang zalim itu dimusnahkan sampai ke akar-akarnya. Segala Puji Bagi Allah Tuhan semesta Alam.” (Surah Al An’aam: Ayat 45). Wallahua’lam.
NIK ABDUL AZIZ BIN NIK MAT
Mursyidul Am PAS
Bertarikh : 9 Safar 1430
Mursyidul Am PAS, Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat berkata, status Institusi Raja akan terjejas di mata rakyat kalau Raja mendengar dan akur menerima nasihat (advise) dari orang lain.Bagi beliau, Menteri Besar dalam sesebuah negeri adalah mewakili rakyat dalam sesebuah negeri untuk disembah kepada Raja."Orang lain, walau PM sekalipun adalah orang luar. Kalau tidak begitu maka akan timbul bermacam-macam krisis dan huru hara," katanya dalam kenyataannya hari ini.Berikut adalah kenyataan penuh beliau:Raja dan demokrasi
1. Menteri Besar dalam sesebuah negeri adalah mewakili rakyat dalam sesebuah negeri untuk disembah kepada Raja. Orang lain, walau PM sekalipun adalah orang luar. Kalau tidak begitu maka akan timbul bermacam-macam krisis dan huru hara. Ini termasuklah siri-siri jenayah dan pencolekan seperti yang berlaku ke atas Menteri Besar Terengganu, Daud Samad dan beberapa Wakil Rakyat di Negeri Kelantan di tahun 1960an.
2. Di zaman Tun Dr. Mahathir, Institusi Raja terjejas teruk dan jangan-jangan ia terjejas lagi di kali ini. Ucapan saya ketika di Parlimen di masa itu antara lain berbunyi: “Orang politik akan menjadi Raja/Presiden di masa hadapan. Puncanya kerana peribadi sebahagian Raja-Raja itu sendiri.”
3. Sistem Beraja tidak menjadi semakin bertambah. Hendaklah diingati benar-benar bahawa sistem Beraja semakin hari semakin berkurangan. Bertambah tidak. Dunia boleh saksikan sendiri bagaimana Raja Nepal di Katmandu, Sultan Hussein di Singapura, Hamingkubuwono di Indonesia, Sultan Kudrat di Filipina, Al-Malik Farouk di Mesir, Shah Iran di Iran, Maharaja China di Negeri China, Maharaja Yaman di Yaman, Iraq, India dan seluruh Benua Eropah. Kini, mereka hanya tinggal sejarah.
4. Jadi, Institusi Raja di Malaysia perlu berhati-hati benar.
5. Saya sayangkan Institusi Raja kerana saya tahu bahawa rakyat hormatkan Rajanya. Saya sendiri dapat merasakannya kerana saya sendiri juga daripada keturunan Raja Jembal. Selain daripada menghormati saya dari aspek-aspek yang lain khususnya dari hal agama, mereka hormat saya kerana saya juga datang dari keturunan ini.
6. Tegasnya semua pihak perlu berhati-hati dalam menangani krisis yang cuba dicetuskan oleh pihak-pihak yang berkepentingan di luar dari Negeri Perak. Ingatlah, Allah Maha Berkuasa diatas segala sesuatu dan Allah tidak akan berpihak kepada pihak yang berbuat kezaliman. Sebaliknya, Allah akan menurunkan bantuan kepada mereka yang dikhianati dan mereka yang ditindas. Firman Allah S.W.T. bermaksud : “Maka orang-orang yang zalim itu dimusnahkan sampai ke akar-akarnya. Segala Puji Bagi Allah Tuhan semesta Alam.” (Surah Al An’aam: Ayat 45). Wallahua’lam.
NIK ABDUL AZIZ BIN NIK MAT
Mursyidul Am PAS
Bertarikh : 9 Safar 1430
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Sharp Slap to UMNO’s Leadership
Sharp Slap to UMNO’s Leadership
M. Bakri Musa
The humiliation suffered by UMNO in the January 17, 2009 by-election in Kuala Trengganu, a seat previously held by one of its Deputy Ministers, is further proof that the party’s thumping in the March 2008 General Elections was the beginning of the end. Getting rid of its leader Abdullah Badawi will not alter UMNO’s fate; a future with Najib Razak will be no solution either.
The party is no longer salvageable; UMNO is now beyond redemption. Its leaders and members are incapable of appreciating and thus adapting to the profound changes now gripping the nation. As Tengku Razaleigh aptly put it when commenting on the results, “We are in uncharted waters with no one at the wheel.”
There are of course exceptions to the current lack of talent in UMNO’s leadership, but they are rare. Zaid Ibrahim had some sensible ideas on reforming the judiciary for example, but look what they did to him! Tengku Razaleigh’s speech at the recent ASLI economic conference was simply brilliant; he rightly pinpointed the major problems facing our nation and offered sensible strategies to approaching them. His was an insight and articulation Malaysians should expect of our leaders. There again however, he was essentially ignored by UMNO’s leadership hierarchy in his recent quest for the top slot.
In this by-election UMNO resorted to its old corrupt ways that had served it well in the past. There were the sudden announcements of generous public funds to key constituent groups as well as the usual co-opting of government agencies to do Barisan’s bidding. If those tricks were not enough, there was the literal stuffing of envelopes with cold cash for voters and reporters.
Judgement on Najib Razak’s Leadership
The victory by PAS candidate Wahid Endut is even more impressive considering that future (come this March) Prime Minister Najib Razak literally made his temporary home in Kuala Trengganu during the entire 11 days of campaigning, returning only briefly to the capital to take part in the Tahlil prayers on the anniversary of his father’s death.
Those voters viewed the upcoming transfer of power from Abdullah to Najib less a promise of better things and more a threat of the same tired corrupt and corrosive ways of the past. The political status quo would only further divide instead of bringing us together. Malaysians were rightly fed up with this.
Win or lose, this election would not alter the political reality; Barisan would still maintain its majority in Parliament. In perception however, this loss only reinforces my earlier “beginning of the end” and “beyond redemption” assertions of UMNO. Undoubtedly these were the reasons that compelled Najib to expend his political capital and risk his reputation by actively campaigning.
Ignored by voters, Najib tried to rationalize the outcome by dismissing it as a “minor setback” with “no impact on the national political landscape.” He was reduced to declaring that Barisan was “still relevant.” Pathetic!
I would have expected that as Finance Minister, Najib would be busy in Putrajaya dealing with the rapidly evolving global financial crisis now threatening our nation. Instead there he was in Kuala Trengganu acting like Santa Claus distributing candies to voters. They gleefully took the gifts, but being adults (and Muslims, at least most of them) they did not believe in Santa Claus, or Najib Razak.
These past few weeks reflect Najib Razak’s leadership priorities and sensibilities. Kuala Trengganu voters were rightly not impressed. Neither am I.
Greasing UMNO’s Slide
Come this March, Najib Razak will be the party’s (and thus country’s) leader. He will have as his deputy Ali Rustam, Muhyyiddin Yassin, or the Double Muhammad Taib, individuals with tainted pasts and less-than-impressive resumes. Sobering thought!
Barring divine or other intervention, this will also be the team that will lead UMNO and Barisan Nasional into the next General Elections scheduled no later than March 2013. UMNO has its leadership convention every three years; theoretically it could change its leadership before the next general elections. However, the party has a tradition of “no contest” for its top two positions and a past pattern whereby leaders would conveniently postpone the leadership convention till after the general elections.
That would be great news for Anwar Ibrahim-led Pakatan Rakyat, further enhancing its chance of assuming power. This may occur even sooner if Barisan Members of Parliament, sensing the political change, were to abandon their parties. The shift could also come earlier if, as expected, Sarawak were to call an earlier election. Then there is the volatile political situation in Sabah.
The objective of any political party is in assuming power. Anything less and you will be relegated to the status of a perpetual fringe party. While that may satisfy the purists in your party, you risk being permanently dismissed by voters. The country’s political graveyard is littered by the ghosts of many such parties.
Then there is the crucial difference of being voted into office because of the positive choice of voters rather than their rejecting your opponent. Anwar Ibrahim and his fellow leaders in Pakatan Rakyat are fully aware of this. It is not enough for Malaysians to be fed up with Barisan Nasional, we must be sold on the promise and potential of a Pakatan Rakyat administration.
As leader of the party that is the centre of the political, racial and other spectra of the Pakatan Rakyat coalition, Anwar has adroitly handled the many competing interests within his coalition by focussing on their commonalities and less on their differences. Differences there are, and they are many and consequential; they could potentially fracture the coalition. If that were to happen, it would crush the hopes of Malaysians long yearning for a change.
Besides, there are enough commonalities of purpose among the component parties of PakatanRakyat, from eradicating corruption and strengthening our institutions to reducing poverty and fostering economic development, among others. Ameliorate them, and you would have the cheers and votes of those currently advocating for an Islamic State, “Malaysia for Malaysians,” or Ketuanan Melayu.
Tackling each of these problems (and all must be addressed at once) would challenge the ingenuity of even the most enlightened and committed leaders. There is no need to harp on their differences. All these could be done without getting entangled with such highly divisive and emotional issues as hudud or special privileges. Besides, those slogans as “Islamic State,” “Ketuanan Melayu” and “Malaysia for Malaysians” have now become meaningless, having been corrupted to being code words for those with more sinister motives.
The corruption and incompetence of the Barisan coalition should motivate Pakatan leaders to focus on solving the glaring and pressing problems of our nation. That would be the sure way to power, quite apart from greasing the downward slide of UMNO and its Barisan Nasional coalition.
M. Bakri Musa
The humiliation suffered by UMNO in the January 17, 2009 by-election in Kuala Trengganu, a seat previously held by one of its Deputy Ministers, is further proof that the party’s thumping in the March 2008 General Elections was the beginning of the end. Getting rid of its leader Abdullah Badawi will not alter UMNO’s fate; a future with Najib Razak will be no solution either.
The party is no longer salvageable; UMNO is now beyond redemption. Its leaders and members are incapable of appreciating and thus adapting to the profound changes now gripping the nation. As Tengku Razaleigh aptly put it when commenting on the results, “We are in uncharted waters with no one at the wheel.”
There are of course exceptions to the current lack of talent in UMNO’s leadership, but they are rare. Zaid Ibrahim had some sensible ideas on reforming the judiciary for example, but look what they did to him! Tengku Razaleigh’s speech at the recent ASLI economic conference was simply brilliant; he rightly pinpointed the major problems facing our nation and offered sensible strategies to approaching them. His was an insight and articulation Malaysians should expect of our leaders. There again however, he was essentially ignored by UMNO’s leadership hierarchy in his recent quest for the top slot.
In this by-election UMNO resorted to its old corrupt ways that had served it well in the past. There were the sudden announcements of generous public funds to key constituent groups as well as the usual co-opting of government agencies to do Barisan’s bidding. If those tricks were not enough, there was the literal stuffing of envelopes with cold cash for voters and reporters.
Judgement on Najib Razak’s Leadership
The victory by PAS candidate Wahid Endut is even more impressive considering that future (come this March) Prime Minister Najib Razak literally made his temporary home in Kuala Trengganu during the entire 11 days of campaigning, returning only briefly to the capital to take part in the Tahlil prayers on the anniversary of his father’s death.
Those voters viewed the upcoming transfer of power from Abdullah to Najib less a promise of better things and more a threat of the same tired corrupt and corrosive ways of the past. The political status quo would only further divide instead of bringing us together. Malaysians were rightly fed up with this.
Win or lose, this election would not alter the political reality; Barisan would still maintain its majority in Parliament. In perception however, this loss only reinforces my earlier “beginning of the end” and “beyond redemption” assertions of UMNO. Undoubtedly these were the reasons that compelled Najib to expend his political capital and risk his reputation by actively campaigning.
Ignored by voters, Najib tried to rationalize the outcome by dismissing it as a “minor setback” with “no impact on the national political landscape.” He was reduced to declaring that Barisan was “still relevant.” Pathetic!
I would have expected that as Finance Minister, Najib would be busy in Putrajaya dealing with the rapidly evolving global financial crisis now threatening our nation. Instead there he was in Kuala Trengganu acting like Santa Claus distributing candies to voters. They gleefully took the gifts, but being adults (and Muslims, at least most of them) they did not believe in Santa Claus, or Najib Razak.
These past few weeks reflect Najib Razak’s leadership priorities and sensibilities. Kuala Trengganu voters were rightly not impressed. Neither am I.
Greasing UMNO’s Slide
Come this March, Najib Razak will be the party’s (and thus country’s) leader. He will have as his deputy Ali Rustam, Muhyyiddin Yassin, or the Double Muhammad Taib, individuals with tainted pasts and less-than-impressive resumes. Sobering thought!
Barring divine or other intervention, this will also be the team that will lead UMNO and Barisan Nasional into the next General Elections scheduled no later than March 2013. UMNO has its leadership convention every three years; theoretically it could change its leadership before the next general elections. However, the party has a tradition of “no contest” for its top two positions and a past pattern whereby leaders would conveniently postpone the leadership convention till after the general elections.
That would be great news for Anwar Ibrahim-led Pakatan Rakyat, further enhancing its chance of assuming power. This may occur even sooner if Barisan Members of Parliament, sensing the political change, were to abandon their parties. The shift could also come earlier if, as expected, Sarawak were to call an earlier election. Then there is the volatile political situation in Sabah.
The objective of any political party is in assuming power. Anything less and you will be relegated to the status of a perpetual fringe party. While that may satisfy the purists in your party, you risk being permanently dismissed by voters. The country’s political graveyard is littered by the ghosts of many such parties.
Then there is the crucial difference of being voted into office because of the positive choice of voters rather than their rejecting your opponent. Anwar Ibrahim and his fellow leaders in Pakatan Rakyat are fully aware of this. It is not enough for Malaysians to be fed up with Barisan Nasional, we must be sold on the promise and potential of a Pakatan Rakyat administration.
As leader of the party that is the centre of the political, racial and other spectra of the Pakatan Rakyat coalition, Anwar has adroitly handled the many competing interests within his coalition by focussing on their commonalities and less on their differences. Differences there are, and they are many and consequential; they could potentially fracture the coalition. If that were to happen, it would crush the hopes of Malaysians long yearning for a change.
Besides, there are enough commonalities of purpose among the component parties of PakatanRakyat, from eradicating corruption and strengthening our institutions to reducing poverty and fostering economic development, among others. Ameliorate them, and you would have the cheers and votes of those currently advocating for an Islamic State, “Malaysia for Malaysians,” or Ketuanan Melayu.
Tackling each of these problems (and all must be addressed at once) would challenge the ingenuity of even the most enlightened and committed leaders. There is no need to harp on their differences. All these could be done without getting entangled with such highly divisive and emotional issues as hudud or special privileges. Besides, those slogans as “Islamic State,” “Ketuanan Melayu” and “Malaysia for Malaysians” have now become meaningless, having been corrupted to being code words for those with more sinister motives.
The corruption and incompetence of the Barisan coalition should motivate Pakatan leaders to focus on solving the glaring and pressing problems of our nation. That would be the sure way to power, quite apart from greasing the downward slide of UMNO and its Barisan Nasional coalition.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
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