Just like the way he in earlier years of consolidating power smashed democracy by emasculating the Judiciary in 1988 and by Operation Lallang intimidated everyone with culture of fear by placing all political opponents & civil society spokesmen under ISA, not to mention his unenviable record of deposing deposed 3 DPMs & contenders for power. It is paradoxical that the one who emasculated democracy also promoted it with the MSC, signed the Bill of Guarantee with the rest of the World for independence of Internet that allowed MalaysiaKini to thrive, and from there theMalaysianInsider and the concurrent development of blogosphere signifying the fledging emergence of democratic expression amongst Malaysians. When a commenter in Malaysiakini (Petrof) likened Umno Youth to white supremacist group Ku Klux Klan, police reports were lodged by right wing UMNO cadres for sedition and the police raided Malaysiakini. TDM asked for a copy of what was written, and after that no further action was taken against Malaysiakini.
Napoleon once said when asked to explain the lack of great statesmen in the world, that ‘to get power, you need to display absolute pettiness, to exercise power, you need to show true greatness.’

I won’t say TDM is Napoleon’s disciple: on the first part of making his way up to power he certainly displayed the first part of pettiness in using every race and religious card, as regards second part, when he exercised power, it can’t be said that he did it like a statesman.

But in his later years when more secure and relaxed, he evinced some tentative steps, in the exercise of power, to reverse the mistakes of his own administration and legacy. It can’t be said that he was actuated by good motives but his style has always been his favourite song Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” whether in making or rectifying his known mistakes.
Of course I am not saying that had he stayed in power for another 10 years he could reverse all that was bad. I am not even sure he would have that redeeming motivation to make amends to his mistakes, or that even if he had such a motive he could make succeed in the face of so many racist and religious zealots he had by his own hand created by his policies.

But the No 1 Racist has two advantages over other leaders:

First he has the credentials and track record of being an ultra and extremist himself. This could lead to extremists having greater respect for what he says. When he promotes Wawasan 2020 and Bangsa Malaysia – not very different from 1 Malaysia – it will arouse less insecurities, suspicions and resistance from extremists who think he has their interest and agenda ultimately at heart. They are also more scared to provoke his vindictiveness & wrath if they seek to oppose him.

By harping on the need to punish more severely the 2 errant Kulai’s & Sg Petani’s principals and BTN’s deputy director for their racist remarks, YB Kit is doing a fantastic job in driving a wedge between the component parties of BN and UMNO to facilitate the implosion of BN.

Already (according to TheMalaysianInsider) LKY has ticked off his protégée KTK for being an “ostrich” in appeasing UMNO’s pro-Malay policies and MCA’s CSL rapped Muhyiddin for not taking action against the 2 racist principals. They want to be seen by their respective constituencies as not weak kneed. They hope Muhyiddin will understand their posturing – justified on BN’s electoral interest as a whole – if they were not to fade from irrelevance in the 12th GE, into total oblivion and extinction in the 13th GE!

The basic contradiction in BN’s communal politics is that what is imperative for these component parties to do for national elections – ie. to fight for inclusivity/equal opportunities and respect for all races – runs squarely contrary to what each component party and especially UMNO will have to when it comes to their internal party’s elections in which contenders for party’s positions will have to beat chest and drum up their respective communal agendas, and in UMNO’s case, “Ketuanan Melayu”.

In this conflict/tension between the ethnic-centric imperatives of party’s elections as against the inclusive imperatives of the imminent next national elections, the Economist Intelligence Unit (“EIU”) correctly predicted that the former would prevail – “Umno tends to turn inward during leadership battles, ignoring the interests of other (BN component) parties…” If true it implies Muhyiddin – and the cabinet that he leads in Najib’s absence- is likelier not to budge on his original position of leaving the disciplinary matter of the principals to the PSD. The suggestion that the second omni-planetary luminary within the UMNO/BN’s firmament has to defer to PSD’s jurisdiction on disciplinary actions against civil servants imposes even on the naïve. This presents a gridlock of conflicting positions between UMNO and the significant other BN’s component parties (MCA, Gerakan & MIC) – a perfect political opportunity for the Opposition and Kit in particular to exploit/leverage.

Where strong leadership is wanting against external Opposition’s pressure leveraging on “1 Malaysia versus Ketuanan” issues, everyone else on the other side of the political divide will be pitched against each other when they try to assert their own position on how to confront the political challenges of the day. Not just BN’s politicians but also retired ones like TDM or NGOs like Perkasa. Why it must be a pleasant surprise to even a bureaucrat like the chief secretary that he too amid the political maneuvering now is ostensibly vested a say above the DPM/Education Minister on the fate of the 2 principals! This is part of the process of the BN’s implosion arising out of its internal inconsistencies and tensions.

The downside to this so-called BN’s implosion process in which all want to have their say loudly and publicly and fight each other within the BN and its component parties is that it creates tension within the wider society.

That many Non Malays seize the 2 principals & Hanim’s race misstatements to demonstrate their offence is understandable arising from cumulative frustration over 40 years of marginalization due to race policies; that there are just as many race supremacists nurtured by these 40 years of race ideology that will fight back, in defence, to put the ‘pendatangs’ in their place is also inevitable, leading to greater political instability as the EIU also predicted.