NEP, UMNOnomics and Change.

Ironically, the NEP has prepared the material basis for a real change in Malay politics. It has brought into being the new Malay whose very life existence brings it into conflict with UMNOnomics. This is what NEP has degenerated into-UMNOnomics.

When you impose the full weight of the government on economics believing that by doing so, you will sort out all the economic injustices, what you are doing is DEMAND desired economic results by a central authority based on a collective command over economic resources. This was something pointed out by F.A Hayek in The Fatal Conceit.

The key words here are central authority and collective command. We in Malaysia know collective command means the sum total of government rules and regulations, quota enforcements, the creation of obese GLCs to compete with individual economic actors. I have spoken about GLCs being thoroughbred horses employed to pull milk carts and that is crying shame. It only shows the GLCs are run by petty minded individuals whose 'excellence' is unjustly amplified by the officious positions they hold.

The central feature of UMNOnomics is the idea of the omnipotence of the UMNO government in sorting out economic problems and issues. It is grounded on this fatally conceited idea that the government knows best. When our Prime Minister recently announced that the age of government knows best is over, that was the clearest acknowledgement and admission that all this while, that was how the government behaved. It behaved as though it knows best what the people want, how much they want, where and when they want.

Furthermore, when those who derived even some semblance of legitimacy from the idea that government knows best (which is but just another word for central authority with collective command over resources), feel they are empowered, they start throwing their weight all around. Those who think they have legitimacy are not confined to those who have formal powers and authority but also extend to those who have informal legitimacy- the ketua bahagians, the ajk bahagians and UMNO people in general. This government is ours, we can do what we like seem to be their creed.

That fatal conceit has only led to the creation of a bigger number of people who are disillusioned, sidelined and marginalized. The end results of UMNOnomics?- BENEFITS FOR THE FEW, COSTS BY THE MANY. On the basis of this experience, a larger class of marginalized people came into being. They become fully conscious of their position in society and they will be transformed, as a force fighting for its material interests. What are they looking for? They demand nothing short of the dismantling of UMNOnomics.

CHANGE.

We must challenge the idea that the natural order of things is immutable. We must reject the silly idea that it's useless to rock the boat. We have to ask ourselves: what kind of power structure do we want? Do we want one that is self continuing i.e. one that goes on independent of us? Or do we want a power structure that is self perpetrating, i.e. we clone ourselves to ensure the system we set will be prolonged indefinitely?

We have seen these two perceptions being played out in the recent UMNO election. Some people talk about change- or should I say, posturing about change without understanding what change essentially means. Because of that, after one year from the last general elections where UMNO was soundly trashed, no revolutionary changes are forthcoming. None came for the simple reason; change is understood as mere replacement of an old order.

It is on the meaning of change, we differ fundamentally. You think we can change by just mouthing the slogan 'berani berubah'? It does not matter if the phrase is muttered by our PM- it is not a qualification of a PM to know and understand everything. It is still something that must be subjected to the test of life. Has the change spoken of by the UMNO leadership been reflected in the everyday life of UMNO? I am afraid, the answer will be no.

I think if the change that was once touted actually took place, what we would have seen was the replacement of one group adopting the business-as-usual culture by another group. It would have been more of the same. It would have been quantitative changes augmenting the implosive undercurrents.

The cornerstone of our understanding of change is as follows. Change does not take place gradually in a straight smooth line. Change can never be just the changing of the guards. Change must essentially be disruptive and explosive. Karl Marx termed it a revolution which would lead to the dictatorship of the proletariat. Joseph Schumpeter saw the same thing, but arrived at a different conclusion. Both saw progress in terms of destruction of the old order to be replaced with a newer order, more vibrant one. Hence, if the berani berubah simply means the replacement of the perpetrators of the old culture with a new set of perpetrators of the same culture, you don't have change.

For real change, you need to have an agenda to carry out a complete overhaul of the business–as-usual culture of UMNO. You want change? Press for direct elections of office bearers at cawangans, bahagians and national levels. Insist on quality leadership at cawangan, bahagian and national levels. You want change- gradually dismantle the abused aspects of the NEP- UMNOnomics.

The problem is UMNO does not dare to change. The NEP is for instance has turned into a vicious and angry tiger from which UMNO is scared to dismount. Having taught the Malays to receive free fish, UMNO could not afford to abandon those they have not taught to fish.

Failure to see the essence of change can only lead the UMNO leadership churning out analgesics and unconvincing assurances. So far we have seen nothing explosive or disruptive about UMNO power structures. We still see the UMNO landscape being dominated by UMNO warlords whose hold over their respective divisions or cawangans is made possible only by personal ability to keep dishing out goodies. Hence the loyalty of UMNO members is held tenuously by patronage and welfarism. Loyalty not held and bound by conviction is of course, ephemeral. As a rule, with probably on the rarest of exceptions, the agenda of the UMNO warlords is enriching themselves.

Meanwhile, the quantitative changes are steadily undermining the old order and will later emerge into the light in a sudden overturn. In other words, quantitative differences gave rise to a qualitative change. Gradual changes in the consciousness of workers lead to an explosion in the political consciousness of the masses that all this while, they have been duped. A sudden change in voting preference is not caused by outside "agitators", but is produced by an accumulation of changes within the hearts and minds of voters that finally push them to strike. And struck they did in the 12^th GE.

It wasn't due the goodness of the PKR and other parties. The majority of the 5.7 million Malay voters were not politically affiliated. Many I suspect didn't care two hoots about what PKR and Anwar Ibrahim were fighting for. Over the years, the frustrations and disillusionment have multiplied in quantity and waiting for an excuse to explode. The immediate 'cause' of the social explosion was maybe something quite inconsequential such as the flaccidness of Pak Lah or the alleged undue influence of the 4^th Floor boys or even Malaysia's favourite whipping boy, KJ. Their role was to become "the last straw that breaks the camel's back". They were just the catalyst whereby quantity changes into quality.

The whole series of opposition electoral victories recently are a product of a long accumulation of discontent within the rakyat. I take note of the account given by the blogger Aspan Alias about the problems facing the present UMNO generation. They can be comforted by the fact that what they are facing is not confined to them only. On the whole, UMNO is suffering from a massive deficit in credibility. UMNO has become a reference point for all things bad. The younger generation are rejecting UMNO outright. Government servants whisper unmentionable things on ketua cawangans, the AJK Bahagians and even make fun of the Prime Minister.

They laughed at the hypocrisy and shallowness of the pronouncements made by UMNO information chief about wanting to sleep at kampong houses. That idea represents the highest point of hypocrisy and mendaciousness simply because people can smell their hollowness. The UMNO goons should have been doing whatever the UMNO Propaganda Chief was saying on a continuous basis not because elections are coming, but because UMNO is a party of the people.

Only those with a sense of being victimised or with the keenest empathy with the majority could foresee this development, i.e. the build-up of internal disillusionment which is rooted in the changing objective situation. The objective situation includes the worsening economic relations caused by the 'big government' which in turn allowed rampant corruption and economic abuses, worsening political relations caused by the ruling elite's defence of their economic interests and so forth.

These changes of mood, which are already taking place in the majority of the rakyat and also within the rank and file of UMNO itself, will be reflected within UMNO at a certain stage that will result in the possible demise of UMNO under Najib.

The fact of the matter is, the present top leadership in UMNO and the larger proportion of the UMNO warlords represent the ruling elite bent on preserving their material interests. There are pockets of UMNO progressives who have written off UMNO as a Party that could never be changed. It could never be changed because of a fundamental flaw in leadership philosophy.

The top leadership and the UMNO power brokers only have an empirical and formalistic outlook that only sees the surface of reality. They fail to draw a distinction between appearance and reality - between the immediate appearance evident to observation and the hidden processes, interconnections and laws that underlie the observed facts. In other words, they are blind to the subterranean processes taking place before their very eyes.

UMNO leadership deceived themselves into thinking they have popular support when they see large congregations at their functions. But they forget these are crowds for rent- you pay them, give pocket money, and supply them with nasi bungkus. You pay people to line up and shout ululations holding bunga Manggar to welcome you. These are appearances which are deceiving. And possibly because of that , the UMNO propaganda chief was able to say, " I think UMNO has got a better chance to win...". What Ahmad Maslan thinks has no bearing on the outcome.

That is why we must challenge also the common statement that politics is just a mater of perception. In order to save UMNO we must always proceed from the immediate knowledge of appearances to the discovery of reality, of the essence, of the laws underlying the appearances. The way of thinking of the bad politicians derives from the fact that it is always only the immediate form in which relationships appear which is reflected in the brain, and not their inner connections.

Let us look closely at what happened to the NEP of late. Tun Razak set out to create millionaires out of FELDA settlers, but today, FELDA Bhd is a multi million Ringgit business organisation while the settlers are nowhere near. FELDA has become a separate business entity at odds with an organisation entrusted to nurture millionaire settlers. Regulations and various forms of quota accorded vast opportunities for corruption. Indiscriminate discretionary powers at interpreting the elements of NEP have succeeded to enrich a minority.

Yes, there is nothing wrong for a venture capitalist to take away the lion's share from men of straw. But we need to ask, how the venture capitalists got to their position in the first place. And once there, why is the segmentation of society into like them and us the rest must remain immutable? Can us the rest attain similar positions as like them?

And what do the little napoleons, the government functionaries vested with some powers at decision making turn the government into? They have turned the government into a state capitalist. When that happened, those controlling the levers of power and decision making, saw many opportunities. The original idea may have been to regard state capitalism- represented by the SEDCS, government owned businesses, even government departments as a trustee for the benefit of the masses. Eventually, state capitalism degenerated into an excuse to pilfer in the name of the rakyat. That of course is UMNOnomics.

Tun Razak set out to establish a government that sought to establish the common good. One of the means to achieve that was the NEP. If the agenda of the NEP was properly executed, we would have achieved a better government. What became of the NEP was, it degenerated into a grand excuse for legalised pilfering. With the rapid flourishing of economic enterprises in the name of Malay interests, the economy in fact, became gradually nationalised. When nationalisation takes place, we got a new bureaucracy. The bureaucracy was not a new ruling class, but a parasitic growth on the state, which usurped political power.

Only a new political revolution could eliminate the bureaucracy and reintroduce democracy. So far what the leadership of UMNO has done is far from revolutionary. The business as usual power structures are still intact. UMNO warlords having their principal agenda of enriching themselves still dominate UMNO culture. Nothing has changed really.