Money Politics in UMNO

When sakmongkol wrote about money politics in UMNO( see The Power of The Loo), it invited a rather acrimonious comment from an anonymous fellow. Sakmongkol doesn’t understand what the writer wanted. That comment seems to suggest his objection to exposing this kind of thing.

The problem is, continued denials will make the gangrenous practice of money politics, palatable. Sakmongkol remembered how Lee Kuan Yew described political detention. It is, says LKY, like making love to the virgin, painful at first but pleasurable later on. Hmm, the thuggish LKY capable of saying that?

It is also like the Goebbelsian lie- the big lies, repeated continuously, becomes an accepted truth.

Why are we so worked up when owning up that money politics are endemic in UMNO? Yes, everyone pays and gets paid. Openly and in toilets. Sakmongkol got the idea of writing the piece on The Power of the Loo from his friend’s SmallTalk’s comments. The toilets in PWTC will be the waterLOO of many UMNO delegates, the operatives and the paymasters. Perhaps the person who posted the comment found it repulsive when Sakmomgkol says, the future leaders of UMNO and the country are determined in the loos of PWTC.

In the last two days, more prominent UMNO stalwarts have come out condemning money politics. The outspoken Rais Yatim has even sarcastically asked UMNO to operate an open tender system. The boss of the UMNO disciplinary committee- yes that administrative contraption that has power to dismiss and accommodate corruption politics appears to have capitulated. Tengku Ahmad Ritahudeen seemed to have given up all hopes for an UMNO redemption.

Almost everyone has made the Faustusian transaction selling his vote and the dignity of UMNO to the devil of money. But even the devil in Malaysia is different from the devil in Germany. In the original German legend, Faustus made a pact with the devil, in exchange for temporal knowledge. In the case of UMNO, delegates made a pact with the devil in exchange not for knowledge but money. It is diabolical the same because the transaction is done in the stinking toilets.

Elsewhere, It is also interesting to note of one noise coming from the periphery- that from Tajol Rosli . He said that UMNO elections must be held regularly and that can also reduce money politics. By having frequent elections, it is assumed that paymasters will gravely spread themselves thin dishing out money. There’s a simpler solution to encourage frequent contests and encouraged more people to contest- remove the quota system.

Sakmongkol would like to end this short essay, by reproducing some observation made by a frequent visitor to his blog- the professorish looking Walla. Oh yes---sakmongkol and mamasita have met up with this Walla with the 1^st class mind in Chemistry!

The equilibrium of Umno politics is therefore tilted towards money politics. In fact, it has become entrenched. And if the economic situation becomes harsh because the country only has weak and indifferent leadership, then the craving for money politics increases. Since weak will become weaker, the situation will spiral downwards perpetually. Especially if the oil spigots run dry and the government which employs these leaders become poorer. Soon, if not even now.

And the expectation is because money politics leads to poor leadership which leads to corruption which leads to national inefficiencies and monetary losses which then fosters inbreeding by the expedient of a process called organizational suasion - "we are in this together". In this type of working environment, even one with steely character will be coerced to become just a silent witness, thereby increasing the pool of weak leadership and continuing the cycle - ad nauseum.