A New And Very Dangerous Low For Malaysian Politics

A New And Very Dangerous Low For Malaysian Politics

M. Bakri Musa

www.bakrimusa.com

The tampering of the plane that would have taken former Prime Minister Mahathir to Langkawi last Friday May 27, 2018, for his nomination for the upcoming election marks a new and very dangerous low in Malaysian politics.

            Tinkering with your opponents’ car, sound system, or power supply is a standard ploy in third-rate, Third World politics, the Malaysian variety included. Those tricks could be performed with ease and by a saboteur with no to minimal skills. The results of such mischief are rarely catastrophic, except for the occasional car explosions. Not so with the tampering of airplanes. 

For Malaysians, that brings back haunting memories of the plane crash of June 6, 1976, dubbed the “Double Six Tragedy” that killed the just-victorious Chief Minister of Sabah, Fuad Stephens, together with a number of his senior ministers. The report of that “accident” is still classified to this day.

What is stunning about Friday’s incident is the uncharacteristic silence of Prime Minister Najib. He commented only much later. Najib, a man who could not figure out whether the hundreds of millions from Saudi Arabia that ended in his personal bank account was donation or a gift but at any rate he has returned the money, accused Mahathir of engaging in the “politics of lying.” The irony escapes Najib, of course!

I commend Transport Minister Liow for responding immediately. The others were in their typical civil service mode, still waiting for a report or arahan(orders from above). The Chief of Police and Chairman of Civil Aviation admitted in a bland statement that there was “a minor and routine technical fault.” They would be smarter and gain a modicum of credibility had they released the full report, if indeed one was done. Anymalfunction on a plane has to be taken seriously. There is no such thing as minor and routine. That comes only after a thorough inspection. 

What the pilot did was spot on, that is, refuse to fly the plane. A true professional. It is his life plus that of his passengers he would be risking. 

It would take someone highly skilled to tamper with an aircraft so as to avoid detection by the pilot during the routine pre-flight checkout as well as bypass a modern jet’s sophisticated warning systems. As such those saboteurs do not come cheap. They have to be either strongly motivated or highly compensated, or both. Meaning, there has to be a strong, elaborate, and well-funded background support system.

This upcoming May 9, 2018 election already shows every sign of being very competitive, a novel experience for Malaysia in recent years. This election also brings many eerie reminders of a similar hotly contested one back in 1969 that resulted in a horrific race riot, except for two significant but not widely acknowledged differences. That election saw the ruling coalition defeated for the first time in many states. Voters’ polarization then was interracial, between Malays and Chinese. By contrast in the current contest it is intraracial, among Malays. That can be even more volatile and explosive. 

UMNO and other Malay chauvinists try to inject into the current intracommunal schism racist elements in order to galvanize their base. They hope to subvert it into a Malay-Chinese conflict. Hence the constant harping on Malay unity and using  the predominantly Chinese DAP in the opposition coalition as a convenient fuel and scapegoat. There was even a malicious suggestion that DAP members would assassinate Mahathir. Laughable and preposterous! Such sinister thoughts reflect more the desperation of Najib’s supporters.

 The other difference is that this election has been reduced to a contest between two personalities – Najib and Mahathir. Hatred, passion, and other strong emotions have been personalized and focused on the two.

Najib is a formidable campaigner not because of his personal magnetism (he has none) or oratorical prowess (he lacks that too) rather he is the incumbent and also Finance Minister. He holds the key to the Treasury. With that he has been disbursing cold cash to  potential voters with the desperation of a hawker getting rid of his pile of unsold overripe durians. Like overripe durian, the stench is fast becoming overpowering. 

 Mahathir is a cool campaigner and has great aura about him, qualities so conspicuously deficient with Najib. Nobody could call Mahathir an amateur politician or statesman. Najib tried that and ended up making a fool of himself. 

Mahathir’s supporters are bound to him by commitment, emotions, and most of all a missionary zeal in the singularity of their purpose – to get rid of Najib. Najib’s supporters on the other hand are dedak-driven and conspicuous by their lack of personal enthusiasm for or commitment to their man. Once Najib runs out of dedak, as inevitably he would, his supporters would wither away or worse, turn against him. Many already have. 

Despite the airplane incident, I do not worry of any attempt at doing away with Mahathir (divine intervention excepted). Instead I fear for Najib. If ardent Mahathir’s supporters feel that  their man is being in any way threatened or even humiliated, the fury heaped by them upon Najib would be merciless. Imagine if harm were to befall upon Mahathir! Remember amok is a uniquely Malay word. No word in any other language could signify the furor, frenzy, or savagery of amok.

I couldn’t care less of Najib’s personal fate, but I worry about the impact of such an action on the nation. Once that dangerous line is crossed, there would be no turning back. Welcome to Pakistan!

Mahathir’s supporters do not take lightly last Friday’s plane incident. They and other Malaysians remember only too well the Double Six tragedy as well as what had happened to that Mongolian model, the banker Hussain Najabi, and prosecutor Kevin Morais. All happened under Najib’s watch; all unbelievably gruesome. The pattern is hard to miss.

As for civil wars, Malays are not immune to that. Many had been camouflaged as insurrections against the sultans and their colonial backers. The most protracted (and also most gruesome) in the Malay world was the Padri War across the Strait of Malacca. That led the opponents of the Padris to seek help from the Dutch. The Dutch continued “helping” those natives for over a century. 

The dynamics today remain the same, only the players have changed. If a civil war were to break out among Malays, and the minorities in particular the Chinese were threatened, rest assured that China would not remain idly by but would “help” alathe Dutch in Sumatra. What with China’s already significant investments in Malaysia, such interventions could be with ease be justified on the world stage. The Padri War would be a ready historical precedent.  

UMNO recently sent its Secretary-General to China’s Communist Party 18^thNational People’s Congress. Rest assured that he was not received there as an exalted guest rather as an emissary from a vassal state, reliving the memory of the 15^thCentury Malacca Sultanate.

Those thoughts ought to temper the excesses of and sober up those Malays within and outside of UMNO with their delusionalKetuanan Melayu. 

As a side observation, I am surprised that Mahathir, being a former Prime Minister, does not get the equivalent of Secret Service protection. In America, former presidents as well as all presidential candidates get that. Mahathir had it until recently. The withdrawal of such protection for him must have been a decision taken at the highest level. 

Najib’s continued silence on last Friday’s plane incident reveals volumes. Today it is a minor tire leak. Tomorrow?