He Who Thinks He Is Lord Of All He Surveys, as UMNO president, believes the party's future is conditional upon the continued marginalisation of the Hermit of 31 Langgak Golf and He Who Must Be Destroyed At All Cost. So the May 11 party elections is conducted with fair play sidelined when it appears either could throw it into awry. Never mind that one spends most of his waking days fighting off an official attempt to assure his future within a special room at the Sungei Buloh prison. Never mind that the Hermit's challenge was stopped dead in its tracks by methods that reveals the fascist nature of UMNO, the 99.9 per cent of nominations for the president and deputy pesident impossible if the nominations were half-way fair. When the Hermit qualified for the vice presidency with the minimum 17 nominations, the UMNO Supreme Council, with a vested interested to ensure he does not stand, quickly nullified the controversial 17th nomination -- from his own division, Gua Musang. It was to have been the ultimate insult: the Hermit is denied nomination from the division he has nurtured and led since 1963. It was to have spelled the end of the Hermit's political career.

It did not work that way. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah was placed in a spot when he got his 17th nomination: he would have to accept the nomination to stay in the race. If he did, his political future could well disapear into UMNO's Bermuda Triangle, accepting his irrelevance in the party, and perhaps political retirement. If not, he would be branded a power seeker unwilling to accept a lower position in the interests of the party. Either way, he was doomed. So, when the UMNO supreme council denied him his nomination, he seized the initiative. Players are referees in the UMNO contest, he thundered; the eight UMNO vice presidential candidates in the supreme council have a vested interest to keep him out. He appeals against the decision, forcing UMNO into yet another quandry. If it is allowed, and he then accepts or declines the nomination, the mud is on UMNO's face.; so it would if it is disallowed. UMNO, however, would not want him to contest for the pressure he represent should he be elected, as is perfectly possible in an UMNO seething beneath the surface, with such high votes that the uncontested president and deputy presidency would shiver. There was, from the start, no intention that the Hermit would be allowed to contest. The Prime Minister's frequent threats amidst the nominations, and the tremendous pressures heaped on the one division that dared nominate the Hermit sent out a clear message of the dangers of nominating the Hermit for any post the leaders would not countenance.

And so, three weeks before the May 11 elections, this quandry casts a pall in the UMNO heirarchy. Even if there was no planned conspiracy, it does look as if the nominations were according to a master plan, not just for UMNO but also for its women's and youth wings. In any organisation as divided as UMNO now is, the nominations should reflect this. That it does not suggests behind-the-scenes pressure and other impediments placed before potential challengers. But UMNO's future itself is at stake. The Prime Minister insists he needs to continue at the helm, and be succeeded by one he selects, even if that man is unelected. But since they automatically become Prime Minister and deputy prime minister, the deliberate prevention of a contest causes unease amongst the non-Malay and many Malay citizens. The Malay cultural divide is so complete that the dominant group, to which the Hermit is the unalloyed leader, is unsure if UMNO, which must regain its cultural primacy it lost since the humiliation of He Who Must Be Destroyed At All Cost to survive, should not be allowed to self-destruct. The Hermit at the helm would have postponed the inevitable; now that he is out, UMNO could remain in power only with strong arm methods. This could not be at a worse time: the principal coalition partners -- MCA, UMNO, Gerakan -- all have similar leadership conundrums built into the equation by their presidents' insistence that they should rule, like the Prime Minister, for as long as possible and armed with dictatorial powers to remove any who dares to challenge this worldview.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my