The Greater Tactician in the Art of War

Mahathir pulled it off with strokes of ingenuity that placed him among the ranks of the world’s finest Mavericks and strategists. In a sense, Mahathir may have divided the party to remain effective and relevant; much like the British divided the races and ruled over the Federation of Malaya. But in the years after Mahathir left office, UMNO was reduced to a decaying empire on the verge of a collapse.

Raggie Jessy

The narrative on the fall of great empires has never been so accomplished as to account for neglect by authoritarian regimes. The Roman Empire crumbled under its own avoirdupois when it placed too much emphasis on being recognized as the capital, rather than to protect its borders and expand its territory. Persia collapsed when its leaders became far too obsessed with titular heroism that was more symbolic than it was functional.

These governments were plagued with the problem of having more institutions than instruments. When a government harnesses its resources towards the administration of the state and maintaining law and order, it serves to the interests of a people and hence, can be regarded as an instrument. But when a government places too much emphasis on existing for the sake of existing, it becomes an institution. And the institution will introduce draconian laws just to ensure that it remains government and that its leaders aren’t compromised politically.

In Malaysia, the ruling coalition is founded on racial sectarianism by virtue of its constitution. Its delegation in the House of Representatives (Dewan Rakyat) is contingent upon the survival of UMNO, a Malay based party from where the Prime Minister is traditionally appointed.

Over the years, UMNO has functioned more as an institution rather than an instrument. Its obsession with capitalistic and supremacist attitudes has drifted even the Malays apart from the coalition. But a leadership crisis that is now simmering may help turn the tide for reasons that I shall try and make comprehensible with this article.

Mahathirism and Authoritarianism

When Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed became Prime Minister, he appeared to denounce traditional aristocratic cultures and roped in corporate magnates and affluent business players into UMNO. This engendered a culture of corporate elitism that compounded to supremacist attitudes and benefited party ‘ultras’ in a big way.

Soon, the culture evolved into a superstructure that came to be known as Mahathirism, and comprised institutions and policies that sought to preserve UMNO’s supremacy rather than pluralize the government structure in the spirit of multiracialism.

It wasn’t long before factional politicking began taking root in UMNO. Greedy ultras from within the party conformed to cabals of powerful men who went around soliciting support against one another. In the later years, these acts of solicitation almost always involved money that summed in the millions.

Be that as it may, the infusion of factionalist attitudes kept UMNO divided and averted the rise of cogent forces that may otherwise have usurped Mahathir’s standing within the party and society. Invincible, Mahathir had a free hand in moulding the economy and the nation uninterrupted, in a manner he thought would best serve the interests of the people.

In essence, he took care of things almost singlehandedly and reigned as an authoritative dictator. His subordinates, on the other hand, were preoccupied with meaningless internal conflicts. They worked like Trojans to keep their cabals strong against contending factions that were always eager to hitch a ride with Mahathir. Thus, UMNO existed not so much for the commoner as it did for groups of corporate elitists, who advocated Mahathirism for their own benefits.

And quite frankly, Mahathir pulled it off with strokes of ingenuity that placed him among the ranks of the world’s finest Mavericks and strategists. In a sense, Mahathir may have divided the party to remain effective and relevant; much like the British divided the races and ruled over the Federation of Malaya. But in the years after Mahathir left office, UMNO was reduced to a decaying empire on the verge of a collapse.

Mahathirism as a cult culture

Over the years since Mahathir left office, party members were imbued with the idea of preserving Mahathirism, believing that they would benefit from it much like their predecessors did. But without Mahathir in command, they began roving in pursuit of a leader who they thought would command the utmost respect and incontrovertible support of the Malays. But alas, such a leader was yet to be discovered.

And from afar, Mahathir reached out to UMNO members, telling them that such a leader did not exist. He turned against his successors (Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Dato’ Seri Najib Razak) with insidious plots designed not only to usurp their power, but to keep Mahathirism alive. Today, he is talking about a party in shambles and how Najib would lead Barisan Nasional to a debacle come the next General Elections.

What UMNO fails to realize is that the party has been in shambles for quite a while. During Mahathir’s final years as party president, support for UMNO was already in the wane. Since then, UMNO began existing for the sake of existing, much like the Roman Empire in its final years of glory. Malay support gradually slipped towards PAS, which seemed to articulate a fairly straightforward model of nationalism and fundamentalism.

For the past twelve years, every Prime Minister who attempted to stamp his mark earned Mahathir’s wrath and was labelled a failure. When Abdullah took over the reins of government, he afforded the leverage of his squeaky clean persona to regain UMNO’s composure within its traditional voter base. As a matter of fact, Abdullah dangled a carrot in front of Hadi Awang’s supporters and got Muslim hardliners to resign to the idea of an Islamic renaissance under his leadership.

But Mahathir would have none of that, and ventured to make a monkey out of Abdullah and his Islamist policies. By this time, Abdullah had articulated his ideas on Islam Hadhari in a speech made out to UMNO members during the 2004 General Assembly. But not many are aware that the idea was originally founded by the late Tunku Abdul Rahman as an extension of Islam Madani, an age old concept advocated by the Prophet Muhammad and his companions.

Be that as it may, Mahathir accused Abdullah of consorting with Saddam Hussein’s regime in a scandalous venture that raked him millions of dollars in virtually no time at all. Mahathir further charged Abdullah of feigning integrity by exhorting Muslim nations to weed out corruption when the latter himself was corrupted to the bone. In due time, Abdullah relinquished his premiership to Najib, who was seen by many as a staunch Mahathirist.

In any event, Mahathir had reduced the institution of premiership to a farce. He savagely curtailed its liberties in the eyes of the commoner, who would probably have bet his bottom dollar that Mahathir was very much in control of the party.

With that, party members gradually allied themselves with Mahathir. To them, Mahathir could never be wrong, because he loved the Malays and would never do anything that could wreak havoc within the party. As far as they were concerned, he possessed infallible insights that would help the party redeem its glory.

Ironically, it was Mahathir’s incessant displays of contempt for the Prime Minister that eroded Malay support into the hands of PAS and PKR leaders. What UMNO Malays failed to see was the lengths to which Mahathir was willing to go to pave the way for his son’s inauguration as Prime Minister by 2021.

The end of Mahathirism

When Mahathir began pointing his canons at Najib, news of a power tussle was wired immediately on the bush telegraph. Before long, speculation was rife of a conspiracy to depose of Najib and have him supplanted with Dato’ Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

But when Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin called for a thorough audit of 1MDB’s accounts, he muddied the water and mystified Mahathirists who had spoken their oracle on the line of succession. It wasn’t apparent anymore who would supplant Najib, though Mahathirists felt certain that Najib’s term in office would be decimated.

But even that assessment is proving to be wrong. Detractors are beginning to regret that they ever took Mahathir seriously this time around. It is becoming apparent that factional politicking in UMNO, a Mahathirist trait, may have saved Najib from the gallows after all.

You see, factional politicking in UMNO had become so bad that Najib was given to deliberate duplicity in behaviour and speech. He never spoke with disarming candour of his every manoeuvre. He would stay ten steps ahead of the adversary, whom he knew was ever ready to subvert his leadership. So he didn’t say much and kept his utmost desires well obscured.

To Najib, there was a time and place for everything. Over a period of time, his detractors began to second guess his motives and decided that he was too weak to withstand an all round offensive by Mahathir. As a matter of fact, even Mahathir was duped into believing that Najib could be taken in gullible.

Beyond that, Najib learnt to keep his friends close and his enemies, closer. He kept his enemies so close, that they found themselves on the horns of a dilemma when Mahathir came knocking once again with the same bag of tricks he used against Pak Lah. And when Mahathir began firing shots across Najib’s bows, both Dato Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal and Dato’ Seri Hishamuddin Hussein were the ones who got the point.

Ironically, Shafie was once rumoured to be Datin Seri Rosmah’s knight in shining armour and a close friend of Najib. Hisham, on the other hand, was related to Najib by kinship and seen as a safe bet by those allied to the latter. It is interesting to note how Hisham had once placed Najib above Putin and Obama for braving separatists following the MH17 tragedy.

But whispers from the alley were of a contrivance to weaken Najib by getting both Shafie and Hisham estranged from the Prime Minister. It was believed that their defection would entice others from within Najib’s inner circle to follow suit. Convinced that Najib didn’t have it in him to weather Mahathir’s assaults, both Hisham and Shafie became bold and turned against the Prime Minister with daggers drawn. However, their defections failed to bring about the desired effect, though it did deliver a rude jolt to Mahathirists who appear to have another think coming.

A bush telegraph that was wired recently foretold of a cabinet reshuffle that was due anytime within the next three weeks. In the event, the Prime Minister is slated to drop both Shafie and Hisham from his line-up while delivering both Dato’ Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek and Dato’ Seri Hamzah Zainuddin important ministerial portfolios. It is rumoured that Hamzah may wind up being the next Finance Minister of Malaysia.

And contrary to popular belief, Najib already has Zahid’s name scribbled on the wall as Prime Minister in waiting. It is a matter of time before people begin to identify with Zahid as a poignant feature in the vanguard of Malaysian politics.