Two views on BN's premature optimism

I find two comments that deserve to be read by a wider audience. Both are strong opinions on the article that I just wrote.  In my article I wrote about UMNO being the dominant partner in BN in the peninsula.  But as the first commentator wrote, this position doesn’t invite envy at all. UMNO could very find itself orphaned soon.

Assuming that if 18( out of 20) of the seats now held by MIC, MCA and Gerakan fall to non BN parties, the BN’s position does indeed rely on the BN partners in Sabah and Sarawak. Sarawak has 30 parliamentary seats while Sabah has 11. As the writer observed, the Sarawak strongman doesn’t seem to give two hoots what Najib and Muhyidin want. Indeed he was sworn in the very night BN Sarawak was announced the winner fearing that delays would invite intrigues and machinations from national leaders. So, before the federal leaders can do him in, he thumped their noses. The message is clear. He doesn’t trust our federal leaders.  Maybe it’s time for him to make deals with other leaders and then agree on a timetable where he can exit with dignity and not unceremoniously evicted as he nearly was after the recent Sarawak elections.

PBB and its partners in Sarawak are friends under the same banner with BN leaders in Peninsula. Can the Sarawak people trust their partner in Semanjung who seemed willing to abandon its own partner in Sarawak just to retain power? With that kind of partner, they don’t need enemies.

Indeed Taib Mahumud who must have felt humiliated by the treatment he got from federal leaders during Sarawak elections recently, now holds the trump card. He is said to have control over 23 of the 30 MPs. He must have felt immensely chagrined as Najib repeatedly told audiences that Taib Mahmud will retire. Taib Mahmud did not say anything about retiring. He said he will retire by a schedule of his own choosing. He is not an UMNO member and therefore doesn’t have someone to watch over him. His party delivered 100 per cent results while UMNO in the Peninsula couldn’t hold a candle to his track record. In short UMNO has no influence at all over Taib Mahmud. He can do very well as he damn pleases.

I have not said anything about Sabah and Sarawak. If the lifeline needed isn’t extended to UMNO and BN in Semanjung, UMNO and BN will find themselves on the opposition benches. That would usher in the much needed cleansing process and the weak in constitution will be weeded out. It’s a common anecdotal observation that should there be a hung government or BN and UMNO loses in the GE, its MPs can be induced and encouraged to cross over while just having teh tarik. Its that simple.

“Actually it’s all about UMNO. UMNO in the end carries BN.”

That was probably true a couple of elections ago. No more. UMNO has just 79 seats in Parliament out of 222. Of the total of 140 BN seats those now held by the other component BN parties held by MCA, Gerakan and MIC – total of 20 - are under serious threat of going to the opposition. So a lot will hang on the 30 seats held Sarawak BN parties, and the 11 held by Sabah BN parties.

So having just 35.6% of all seats, UMNO cannot possibly be the be-all-and end –all of BN. Actually, with the weakness of MCA, Gerakan and MIC, UMNO desperately needs PBB and its allies in Sarawak. That is why, after the recent Sarawak elections Taib Mahmud, without so much as whispering a word to Najib, quietly slipped out to the Istana in the deep of night to be sworn in as CM. He simply showed Najib and the DPM the finger. What can they do to him? Taib knows that the BN government and Najib’s future depends on him.

Ask Sabahans and Sarawakians how much they really care about (West) Malaysian politics, and you get a blank stare. The local politics there overwhelm everything emanating from KL or Putrajaya. Semananjung, Sabah and Sarawak are really 3 separate worlds. So there are the Semananjung UMNO warlords, and there are Sabah and Sarawak warlords. Each has clawed his way to the top through money politics involving cronyism and corruption – through privatization deals and government contracts in the Peninsular, and through timber and land deals in Sabah and Sarawak. If the top leaders are “elected” this way, expect the rest of the party leadership at lower levels to be the same.

UMNO was never like this before Mahathir came to power. The old UMNO had ideals. But after1987 under the stewardship of Mahathir UMNO evolved into a party in which devious, greedy and corrupt leaders have become rich at the expense of the ordinary Malays. This poor quality leadership is reflected in the numerous instances of mismanagement of this country’s wealth as reported by the Auditor General. Nothing is ever done because each trail would lead to an UMNO leader or crony.

Have we not seen or heard enough to say Malaysia deserves a change from this corrupt and inept BN government?

The other comment was submitted by a writer wishing to be known as el especial . this one is reflective.

“During that time, leaders with the required temperament and idealism emerged naturally to lead. Once that phase has run its course and the first generation leaders either passed on or were themselves consumed by the corruption of power, natural leaders cannot be found. We have to either replicate the natural milieu (which we can’t) or consciously plan a process. We have to do the second option.”

Indeed we cannot replicate the natural milieu. As true as it is, rest assured that nature has a rather insidious way of running its course. While we are asleep, the water in the river runs.

Take the state that we are in today. You certainly can’t argue that things are ideal or perfect or how you would want them to be. We are moving far from it towards a chaotic state characterized by rampant destruction, etc etc. Yet this is the natural order. An order that will bring so much destruction so as to rid and cleanse the system anew. Only then can there be an equilibrium of sorts.

One may try to move the system towards this state yet it is an uphill task. The current state of order is so saturated and diluted in a mess of its own making that to untangle, it simply need artificial shocks to the system. And it has to be wide spread to afflict all. The 2008 tsunami is but a small step, of ripples in the sea. Regionally and worldwide more are coming. If its to me, I would put it that artificial shocks are nothing compared to the nature’s order of chaos and destruction as a path to salvation, symmetry, and statis. Some call it composure. Now I’m being long winded.

 “Good leadership is seen as a game of chance- we choose using random methods in the hope, that by some fortuitous process, good leadership emerges. In other words we are leaving it to chance. Because of that, we often have duds emerging as leaders.”

The current milieu does not allow a leader to be true to him/herself and up hold the ideals he/she holds dear lest be seen and ostracized as an outcast trying to instigate foreign elements into the system. Forward steps the duds. A step back for the reluctant leader. They fiddle while the city burns. And burn the city will until the sky is engulf with nothing but darkness. So we wait.

The night is dark before a new dawn.

The methods employed to make the current assessments indicate qualities that make up a person’s disposition but not a reflection of good leadership. We have to be clear right from the start- we are looking for good leadership not a good person in the sense of possessing a likeable personality. A good person earns credit for himself and the benefits of being a personable fellow accrue to him alone. But if he is not a good leadership material, his defects affects whole societies.”

Agreed. And behind these leaders, there are those who prefer to be the invisible hand. Unnoticed yet potent.