– Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
August 01, 2013

Readers may be interested to read an abridged version of an interview I had with The Malaysian Insider, here.

I spoke freely about a number of issues. One of these includes the future of Malays and what Mahathir is doing to imperil the social structure in Malaysia by distorting the issues.

If I may expand. Najib will fail in his glasnost style of politics because he hasn’t got the ground troops in the support power structures. He has the institutions, the means which are given legislative muscle- but the people to implement his ideas are not there.

His world is full of tenured sycophants. Tenured in the sense that as far as these people get bits and pieces of economic and business entitlements- they sing like canary of Najib. In order to make his ideas take root, he needs the manpower with enough zeal, dedication, honesty and commitment to carry out the ideas.

Sadly, he has a modicum of talent and even then, the talented ones like KJ, Nurjazlan are viewed with suspicion and envy. Najib has got two chances – slim and none. Look at what happened to Gorbachev. Najib has old man Boris Yeltsin in the form of Dr Mahathir hovering around him. Old man Boris would very much like to put a Putin with enough aggression to control the politics. He is cultivating several- Muhyiddin, Shafie Apdal, and eventually the son. Yes, Mukhriz is now being trained to take over.

The Umno ground stands in opposition to Najib. What he has is, perception that is media created mostly that his policies are working. The Umno ground isn’t buying his Glasnost style. They want assertiveness and power talk. This is where, the man who can walk on water – Dr Mahathir – comes in.

What Dr Mahathir has done is to set the tone and the theme for the coming Umno elections. His message: – In order to check and balance the emergence of an assertive Chinese community, the next batch of Umno leaders must be the most Malay of Malays. They must be aggressive, strident and bellicose.

In other words, Umno must be ultra-Malay and its leaders ultra-Malay leaders. Mahathir wants the perkasafication of Umno which he sees as being emasculated under the weak leadership of Najib. Only Najib hasn’t seen this or if he knows about it, he has no capacity to counter Mahathir. It’s vintage Mahathir laying down the terms of Umno leadership. It’s actually and endorsement for those who can represent the truer Malay. If Muhyiddin is too thick to catch Mahathir’s drift, it will be his loss.

The Mahathir-type Umno leader immediately rules out PM Najib. For Najib is now seen to be too compromising. His 1Malaysia concept is subject to widespread ridicule overshadowed only by overwhelming routinised propaganda. His actions of spending and spending are regarded as useless by Mahathir.

Incidentally, Najib’s spendthrift way reconfirms what I have been saying about him – that the only way he knows to sort our problems is the way he has always used in holding the Pekan people mentally captive – pay his way through. Najib’s solution in securing loyalty and support is by way of Pekan-isation of the Malay mind. Pekan-ization has now entered into Umno’s political lexicon.

Najib is seen to be giving in to demands from the Indian and Chinese communities. The fact that MCA is no longer part of the administration is not relevant because Najib believes his benevolence transcends MCA. With or without MCA, Najib believes he can serve Chinese interests simply by a politics of accommodation. MIC appears to have placed their fish trap in a strategic passage. It has gained at MCA’s folly and expense. It has more Indian reps in the administration than in all previous governments.

Whether the Chinese want to share or go on their own is not the issue. The more pertinent issue is whether Umno has leaders with sufficient assertiveness and fortitude to withstand the Chinese onslaught. They must come in to rescue Umno. It is the Umno Malay imperative to replace Najib now.

For all Mahathir cares, a resurgent Umno can work with DAP as long as Umno is accepted as elder brother. But a stronger Umno must emerge first and a stronger one does not need a Najib.

Dr Mahathir has written an article. It was titled “The Chinese Dilemma”. The Chinese it seems must decide whether to seize political power now that it has economic power. Dr Mahathir is also saying the Chinese are wrong in supporting DAP because unlike MCA, DAP does not want to share power.

The comparison is hardly correct. MCA does not share – it takes what it is allowed to chew. MCA is Umno’s Pekingese loyal to Umno and subservient.

MCA is a good boy because it is willing to share power by being the subordinate partner. Dr Mahathir ignores the fact that in Penang, the DAP shares power with its PR partners and in Selangor shares power with PKR and PAS. In Penang it shares power much in the same way as Umno shares power in Umno dominated states. And in Selangor DAP shares power much in the same way, MCA or Gerakan shares power in Umno dominated states.

The difference is, the power sharing is done on the basis of first among equals. With Umno, the power sharing basis is a master-servant structure.

That is the real cause for the rejection of MCA. The Chinese by and large see MCA as an ineffective instrument to represent Chinese needs.

DAP cannot rule Malaysia without partnering up and know this; without having Malay leaders in the forefront. And ruling Malaysia as in doing it alone is not on its radar screen. The DAP’s attractiveness lies in the cause it champions – things that are dear to Chinese within the given Malaysian social environment; a good government, good governance, far deal for Chinese etc. As for the rest, the Malays can have it except the Malays are now sophisticated enough in their thinking to value matters like good government, reduced corruption, absence of abuse of power, reject nepotism and cronyism-led economy etc.

That kind of Malay government can be accepted by all including DAP. – August 1, 2013

* SakmongkolAK47 is the nom de guerre of Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz, the Raub MP.