UMNO’s Hall of Infamy

I was revising my notes of my article on Najib's choice of ketua pemuda when I received a comment from a friend in Blogsphere. Pak Zawi from Kelantan has expressed his disappointment over the desertion of the 2 PKR reps. If I understand it correctly, it's not with the desertion of the two that he is more depressed with as it is with the impact on UMNO's moral uprightness. He wanted to know my thoughts on this. Here are the thoughts of a sidelined politician.

PKR Behrang assemblyman Jamaluddin Radzi and his Changkat Jering colleague Osman Jailu have been reported "missing". The PKR duo was at the centre of a bribery charge last year. Last August, Jamaludin and Osman, along with three others, were charged with 16 counts of corruption involving a RM180 million housing project spanning 36 hectares in Sri Iskandar, south of Ipoh. Their trial is scheduled to begin on Feb 10. If convicted, they could face a maximum of 20 years in jail and a fine of not less than five times the amount of gratification, or RM10, 000, whichever is higher. According to rumours, they were offered to have the corruption charges against them dropped if they switched camps.

Suppose the rumours are true. UMNO has used both the carrot and stick to persuade the YBs to realise the errors of their ways. And after an SMS I received from an UMNO parliamentarian reporting the latest goings on, I am inclined to believe that that will be true.

That set me into thinking. Is that an occasion to celebrate? To rejoice at UMNO's success of persuading 2 PKR people to accept the ideals of UMNO? What UMNO shows is that, it is no different from Anwar Ibrahim in terms of values that it has. Despite its trumpeted remonstrations and pompous righteousness against party hopping, when push comes to shove, our acceptance of the two renegade PKR man proves that we are as opportunistic as Anwar Ibrahim. But then Anwar Ibrahim is just the other side of the coin, No? Of course we will rationalise our behaviour as pragmatism and doing what any ordinary party will do.

That brings me back to the declaration by the DPM that the way to combat political corruption, exemplified commonly in the form of money politics, is to (a) make enforcement more efficient and (b) moral exhortation. Both of which are very tall orders. As I said, the ink from the press reporting what Najib said has not even dried, when a group of UMNO street fighters staged a noisy demonstration. They want a stop to MACCs intrusion into the morality of UMNO politics and expel the well meaning Tengku Din. That public declaration of political righteousness is immediately rendered hypocritical when we used the same tactics to induct the two political deserters. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah may be on to something when he said: so far, the most high-profile alternative suggestion against "money politics" has been to have stricter enforcement and moral exhortation. By the same leaders who elected through money politics, presumably.

That will only show, UMNO has no ideals. It only has expediency which is just a gloss to the classic saying that in politics, there are no permanent friends or enemies, just permanent interests. We have no permanent friends. We have no permanent enemies. We just have permanent interests." These words were said by Benjamin Disraeli, the British PM in Victorian times. Thus we are able to translate: UMNO has no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, only permanent interests.

This depressing episode demonstrates again and again, that UMNO is on the throes of death. It seems to attract likeminded opportunists, the dregs of societies, the rejects who prostitute themselves. Just look at the two prospective inductees, they are allegedly involved in corruption. If they are indeed guilty, they can also be bought on the same terms. In the end, there will no longer be honourable men in UMNO. The inductees in UMNO's Hall of infamy include an ex minister with a penchant of putting his hands on the rear end of cigar girls, an ex MB who flouted the laws of a foreign land, the morally depraved, the contract junkies and so forth.

What options do the Malays have now? Honourable politicians such as Tengku Razaleigh are spurned in favour of political degenerates, the UMNO system all fucked up, and money politics has infected every sinew and marrow of UMNO. The Malays will gravitate towards Nik Aziz or will extol the political uprightness of the lion of Jelutong, Karpal Singh. He has remained stubbornly steadfast in rejecting political frogging as a means to secure or retain power. And UMNO? UMNO will be the refuge of political scoundrels.