THE PRIME MINISTER IS INCENSED. HE told the Cabinet recently he could not trust the Royal Malaysian Police, nor the Home Ministry's secretary-general, Dato' Seri Aseh Che Mat, to crack down on illegal CDs. So he ordered the raid that is more extensive than ever before. Why? The opposition political party, PAS, uses CDs and VCDs to spread its message, with the speeches of its leaders and other important political messages pressed into CDs and released for sale within days throughout the country. These CDs are, in the eyes of the law, illegal since they do not have the official seal of approval for public distribution. Tens of thousands are sold in stalls and elsewhere at a throwaway price that the government and UMNO has a tough time to stop it or counter its message. No other political party does this unique way of spreading the message as efficiently and effectively.

That is bad enough. A CD of MAS air stewardesses in flagrante delicto with a MAS steward, the son of a prominent singer, makes the rounds. Another of a television actress now makes the rounds of the prurient's list of what should not be missed. But all this is not as serious as that of a cabinet minister in a tryst with an undergraduate. Even the security services have heard of this, and all hold their breath to hope it would not surface until at least until the general election is over. There is no smoke without fire. I have as yet met no one who has seen it, but know of others who have. When an MIC leader was accused to have cavorted with countless ladies, and have his adventures captured on a VCD, he denied it, even when these VCDs were available freely on the black market.

This scandal comes amidst the controversy over the issuing of a casino licence in Pahang to a crony, who then misused it by expanding on it to turn the one-armed bandits into a virtual casino. The National Front (BN) government, in its attempt to bring a moral solidity to one which has forgotten its meaning, finds itself grasping for air as more examples of moral decadence challenges its survival. The inquiry into corrupt practices in the Ampang Jaya municipal council was encouraged until it reaches the doors of prominent UMNO politicians. The spate of illegal CDs, once confined to those on sale without proof of its authenticity and to PAS political messages, now takes on a wider front: and includes pornographic CDs. The more so when it implied that UMNO members 'acted' in them.

When vision and moral self-confidence is shortchanged for quick profit and instant wealth at any cost, one is then bothered not by the morality of it all, but so one can be rich at any cost. The inherent cultural values are then lost, and nothing matters so long as one is not damned by the other's failure. In other words, UMNO has to grapple with a present and a future without the underlying cultural and communal moral values. So, it does not surprise that this money-is-king culture throws religion and culture out the window, and more the money, the higher the status. And with it the ingrained belief that without it, one should not complain if one is damnned and discarded.

But when this is defended, by UMNO leaders from Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed down, within the framework of the modern Malay, who eschews Malay cultural and communal values, derided in his thinking as superstition and worse, it leads to other abuses he cannot control. It was this refusal to accept the inherent values of the Malay that led Dr Mahathir to spin out of control to vaunt his arrogance and attempt to destroy his chosen deputy, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim as he did. He has destroyed three of his chosen deputies, now targets his fourth, only that he has run out of time. He has but four months left before his departure, and those who swore by him has no qualms now to spit at him. Why is not hard to guess: When loyal supporters cannot get the money to show how quickly and with frippery they can spend it foolishly, they seek others who could provide it.

What is at the heart of the current malaise in UMNO is this deliberate erosion of values. Money has surpassed culture and old-fashioned values as the hallmark of the modern Malay. And it spreads to the leaders of the non-Malay political parties, especially those in BN. And this brings about the political problems of leaders hanging on to their positions in the political party for fear of what they could lose, in wealth and status, if they are no more there. When this starts at the top, when Dr Mahathir, having decided last year at the UMNO General Assembly, in a moment of amnesia, that he would retire in October this year, would rather not. For all the firm declaration during the UMNO General Assembly this year that he would, he would rather not. The loss of status and power that comes with loss of office is too much to bear for a politician who had become used to it.

Dr Mahathir made a harebrained attempt to revert the trend, when he realised he could blame no one else for it, he turned Malaysia into an Islamic state, more to show that he wants Malays, especially those in UMNO and BN, to realise they must revert to the communial and religious values they now reject if they want to continue in office. The modern Malay or the Melayu Baru did not have a chance of survival. That fine exemplar of the Melayu Baru, Tan Sri Mohamed Taib, then mentri besar of Selangor and he who carries millions of ringgit in his handbag when he goes on holidays, fashioned it arrogantly in monetary terms. When that self-same Melayu Baru found his access to wealth beyond Croessus' greed stopped by those who thought otherwise, especially the then finance minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the decision to destroy him was taken without a tinge of emotion.

It destroyed once and for all what vestige of old fashioned morality and cultural moorings remained in UMNO and Melayu Baru. All this happened in the past five years, after Dato' Seri Anwar was politically destroyed and culturally humiliated. He rallied to battle within this framework of cultural and religious moorings, turned it into a fight between good and evil, and UMNO and its leaders found it had a battle on their hands they could not win. As they man the ramparts against a cultural and religious enemy, and not just its political enemy, PAS, they collapse from within. Which is why the UMNO- and Prime Minister-to be, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, frames his takeover to the poisoned chalice with a call to basics. Would he succeed? One hopes he does. But first he must set right what the modern Malay has lost. Can he? On that lies his - and UMNO's - future.

[This is my column in the Parti KeADILan Nasional organ, Seruan KeADILan, in its latest issue, out 24 June 2003]

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

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Terbitan : 28 Jun 2003

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