Pak Lah blinks as the people get angry
13-03-2006 

PAK LAH SAID the people are angry with the 30-cent increase in petrol but warned the opposition parties were taking advantage of it. He withdrew the subsidy to petrol companies, a practice started about 40 years ago to keep prices down. The oil companies had not increased the prices, but with the removal of the subsidy increased the price. The government explained that petrol companies have not increased the prices for some time but the government has withdrawn 30 cents of the subsidies! Whatever the reason, the people now pay nearly two dollars per litre in petrol. but It was not he who withdrew the subsidy but his son-in-law, Mr Khairy Jamaluddin, so that the government would have enough money for his projects under the 9th Malaysia Plan. This may or may not be true, but the studied silence in the government and civil service to allegations on the Internet and alternate press that now takes as read that the son-in-law demanded it. That sticks, whether Pak Lah likes it or not and he refuses to say otherwise.

Pak Lah's spin was to prove he did right in withdrawing the subsidy. He warned all not to raise prices. But this is ignored. Cooking gas went up five dollars, not accounced as in the past. The mainstream and government-owned or controlled media talked about why it was necessary to withdraw the subsidy, but not about the widespread price rises, from cookingg gas to vegetables. This was to ease government's finances so that the people did not suffer. but it was they who did. But it annoys people in secret, not even telling parliament about it, confident that it could do as it lliked because it has been voted into power. Until now. If the withdrawal of subsidiy was the right government policy, it is because there is no elections in the near future, and Pak Lah should have defended it, instead of talking through his (metaphorical) hat. He was now shown that the people are adrift from the National Front.

He also said he would soon lessen the burden of those affected badly. But he should have thought of that before the subsidy was removed. The National Front nor UMNO nor the civil servants explain their actions. They think they can tell what they like and the people will lap it up and left in the dark. But times have changed. The people have found other ways to get past the government ban on publications except what it approves. No newspaper can be published if it does not support the National Front government. It does not explain its or civil service actions. In this vacuum other voices creep in, and form the news that people get. The people are quiet for fer of arrest. But the Internet has led many a man-in-the-street writing his version of what happened. Often, this is more accurate than the media, controlled by either parties in the National Front, or by its members. There is the added restriction that the media is now controlled by the Prime Minister of the day, and what he or his men say goes.

There has been frequent demonstrations over the fuel price rise, but the media ignores it. That is the work of opposition parties, so says Pak Lah so that Malaysians would know who their enemies are. In any case, discussions and demonstrations of the withdrawal of subsidy is allowed, so long as an official account of Petronas' RM1,000 billion theoretical earnings are not demanded. Since people will protest at rising prices, the National Front government would rather keep the lid on this demonstration than explain what they cannot explain. There are theories where most of that money went, the government – which prides itself as being caring – will be in worse trouble if it explains that. It is reported in the Internet that Petronas has sold petrol to Taiwan until 2010 at a fixed price of under RM20 per barrel for loans it took in advance when the deal was signed. It does not matter if that is true; but it is belived by signifcant sections of people so that any government explanation is disbelieved. Pak Lah and the cabinet knew about it. And they have to juggle matters to hide that at any cost.

Especially when that oppostion comes from within UMNO. A few branch (cawangan) members have said they plan to demonstrate at Sri Perdana in Putra Jaya, the official residence of Pak Lah, They do not believe his office is a family preserve. They cannot understand why he relies heavily on his children, son-in-law, brothers and their Chinese partners. His transferring from the mentri besar's into that of Mr Patrick Lim, his son's Chinese business partner and in UMNO circles referred to as "Patrick Badawi", in Kuala Trengganu, has acquired the status of legend. He himself told one business man whose land had been taken by the government for its own use, for which land in Cyber Jaya and Nibong Tibal in Penang state would be given as compensation, had to wait for years before he got it. But in such a way that neither of his family's Chinese partners would grab it. This should have been a civil service decision. Why is the prime minister involved in such a mundane decision. Is it because there is money in government land, often and usually given for a song, that he decides on it?

But it is not only the recent petrol price that has landed Pak Lah in trouble. In the recent byelection of Pengkalen Pasir in Kelantan, no mention of Islam Hadhari, allegedly his speciality, was allowed. UMNO campaigners could not say why it should be followed in Malaysia and not Islam, which PAS espouses and is the country's official religion. No one has explained what it stands for, UMNO leaders talk of it as being an Islam suited for modern times. But there is no discussion, even by UMNO leaders, because it is a political concept and not a religion as Islam is. It was concocted by the former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, – and Pak Lah recently published a book on it – to attack PAS. It is drummed into Malaysian minds that they should follow Islam Hadhari over Islam. But Islam Hadhari is anything but a religion. Malaysians are not allowed to discuss it, except laudatorily. One does follow Islam Hadhari as one follows Islam. Otherwise why was Islam Hadhari excluded from Pengkalen Pasir?

The National Front believes that its prime minister can say what he likes, and they follow. At least that is the fiction. But at a seminar in Petaling Jaya yesterday (12 March 2006) one speaker said the Malaysian Chinese Associatiion (MCA) and Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) leaders had approached his organisation over UMNO's policies which they do not agree. But they should have expected that because they were more interested in being in the cabinet than for why they had been sent there by their communities. This is not surprising because UMNO members are also angry with their president, and his belief he is invincible and can do as he likes. He appoints the editor of the New Straits Times, and the Star support him because it is owned by the MCA, and pushes the Chinese point of view as vigorously as the NST pushes the UMNO president's point of view. But even UMNO and MCA members do not believe in their leaders' way of making themselves important. The alternate papers and the Internet is the source of news these days. So what is published in the mainstream media is by and large ignored. They are sold not for the news they contain, but for the advertisement in them.

The reaction to the withdrawal of the subsidy is not what Pak Lah and his supporters expected. There is now as many Malays in UMNO as outside. Although the electoral system is so weighted that no opposition party can 40 seats and more, the Malay is as dissatisfied with UMNO now as the non-Malays are with their parties. UMNO did not realise this until too late, its leaders still assuming that the Malays today are like their fathers and grandfathers. They are not prepapred to accept UMNO's pre-eminent role. UMNO has to be careful in its reaction, because when it is weak or quarrelsome, as now, the opposition gains. But that now includes more Malays than UMNO is comfortable with. But when a significant number of UMNO members think that what their president is wrong, then Pak Lah has to be worried.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com

Source: http://www.mggpillai.com/article.php3?sid=2236