Umno withers in a drought of support
WORLDVIEW
Harun Rashid

Political parties do not die quickly. They tend to linger. It is difficult to identify the exact day when the point of no-recovery happens. A political party resembles more a plant than an animal. This is reflected in the term 'grassroots'.

Higher animals have a heart. When the heart stops pumping, there is but three to four minutes before the brain is permanently damaged. When the heart of a political party is lost, it is often the brain which is responsible.

Plants tend to linger when denied the water which is the essence of support. They wilt, slowly turning brown as the process of photosynthesis slows and stops. The leaves wither and drop, and the stem turns hard. The process is slow, compared to the death of an animal.

It is difficult to determine exactly when a political party reaches the point of no recovery, but in Malaysia there is a case study in the instance of the Umno party. In the summer of 1998, there was widespread discontent among the public at the way the national economy was being managed.

Large expenditures were made that seemed unrelated to the development of the country, though this was the announced intent. The contracts for massive projects were given without tender to political favourites, and large bribes were involved in foreign contracts.

Most of the discontent was whispered, more rumour than demonstrable fact.

Silencing courage

In Malaysia, the truth begins as a rumour, and slowly the rumour matures into truth. First there is denial, then prosecution of anyone caught speaking the truth openly.

If the truth is thought overly damaging by Umno leaders, those with courage to openly publicise it are falsely accused, of something or other, and imprisoned to ensure their future silence.

The arrests, has not been a successful tactic for the Umno party, though they persist in this tactic. Lately, a further eight opposition leaders have been incarcerated, to join Anwar Ibrahim.

Since Anwar’s arrest in September 1998, the Umno party has suffered from an increasing loss of credibility. The leaves began to wilt.

In the ensuing months, the Umno plant has continued to wither, with the water of local support weaned more and more. The leaves have begun to fall away, both at the top and from the lower branches. Survival has become a doubtful matter.

Each month, thousands reach voting age, and they overwhelmingly object to the various injustices perpetrated by the Umno party-in-power. The demographics support a view that the towering plant that was Umno, is in trouble for lack of important nourishment at the roots.

Invisible women

The use of the Internal Security Act (ISA) law to attack the leaders of the opposition youth has had an unfortunate turn for Umno. It has brought the ire of the women behind the men into the fray. This apparently was completely unforeseen.

In Malaysia, as in most other Muslim countries, the women are expected to be relatively invisible.

In Malaysia, the women outnumber the men. The women's vote is perhaps 53% of the total. The number of women enrolled in the universities is around 65%. This shift means the votes of women will win the day in future elections, regardless of other previously important factors such as cultural origin.

The use of the ISA has deeply offended the women, who view this tactic as cruelty to the family, unjustly depriving it of husband and father. It is another offense to the keen Malay sense that one does no harm to another.

There is the historical matter, loss of the air muka, the protection of which has long since been abandoned by the leaders of Umno.

It is possible that the mistake of the ISA arrests, only one in a continuing series, when added to the ongoing refusal to allow medical treatment to Anwar, is the watershed.

The use of the ISA, though the national police force is to take the blame, is perhaps the skewer that pierces the heart of Umno. It seems the demarcation of the point of no-recovery.

Pretty girls

The sad misuse of pretty girls with sweet voices, sacrificed by their managers to lend popularity in a ruse to woo young voters, is viewed with general distaste. They are wrongly advised.

Politics is not the appropriate forum for talented and attractive artists wishing to further a career. It is but another indication that the Umno party cannot survive on its own merits. It must depend on the borrowed popularity of innocent young women, whose simplicity offers no protection against political machination.

In the ancient Aztec culture, virgins were offered as sacrifice to the gods. The leaders opened their breasts in public, taking out and holding up the still-beating heart as gruesome offering. It was thought this horrible custom had ended.

The drought that has dried the Umno branches and roots is generally recognised by the supreme council of the party. In the absence of the finance minister, the prime minister has begun to confess the crimes that have occurred.

He attempts to justify these as having been necessary, and suggests they were not illegal. But his confessions come too late. The heart, once removed, cannot be replaced.