Tip of Day #3: Trust the Kampung Heart
The sacking of Muhyiddin Yassin from the government, but not the party, commits two things, exposing entirely the underbelly of Umno for what it is and, perfectly reflecting on the nature of brute force in party politics.
ShuZheng
Why Mahathir Couldn’t Dislodge Najib and…
What’s to be Done About It
Because of sheer physiological diversity Malay was never an ethnic group, as normally understood, but is the invention of a political label. When he himself spoke of Malay unity, Mahathir Mohamad always presumed otherwise. Even to use Islam as the common denominator, it was faulty because he hadn’t stopped to ask, What kind of Islam?
Recent year events in the Middle East validate that point. Islam mean different things to different Malays, like it is between Shia and Sunni, as different as Indonesians view the religion in Acheh and in Java.
Using Malay as an ethnic group for a political purpose raises a host of questions. Thus, when Mahathir demanded for Najib’s resignation to save Umno, as a racial party, he had to explain over and over and over the implausibility of his contradiction: Najib may be removed as Malay chief but the Malay chief stays; Najib goes, the government stays.
For once in a long, long time, Mahathir could not use the Chinese as a scapegoat because neither the MCA nor the DAP has any say in Najib’s Malay position. But Najib instead could, turning Mahathir’s argument on its head: the Chinese want him out to slap Malay maruah. This creates, in its turn, another paradox: Najib’s source of power is tied to Chinese influence. That is, Najib’s position in Umno is sourced and drawn from a collective entity called the Ggovernment — and not just the Malays only.
Thus, we arrive at this stalemate today. When Najib can no longer beat up the Chinese to sustain his position in the Government, hence in Umno, he has therefore one leg less to stand on; his legitimacy erodes.
All this seems like a futile academic exercise in political analysis, but would not the kampung Malay sees it that way — at least intuitively even if they can’t explain it?
Mahathir had made a distinction between Najib and Umno and separated Umno from Government. When Mahathir attacks from the point of view that Najib is not fit to be Umno leader — speaking thereby primarily to Malay/Umno audiences — then wants him remove from a government post, he was asking for endorsement of a contradiction, difficult to fathom in its logicism. How could he succeed therefore?
He could have asked for Najib’s removal from Umno and leave it at that but this means no Barisan, no Parliament intervention in his cause. More damaging than if he did so is, Mahathir would be attacking the foundation of his political worldview that Malay equals Umno and only Umno can serve Malays.
The reality though is different. Najib is the government from which all the tools of trade could be — and had been — used to beat Mahathir. So far it is only through the government that Najib has survived so that when Mahathir, says to remove him without removing the government, he is asking to keep the solar center, the sun (government), that keeps the moon (Umno) in place, determining its gravitational orbit (Najib) he wants replaced.
