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Wednesday, 16-Jun-2004 11:02 AM The art of persuasion: use gangsters Umno Kelantan has alleged that gangsters have been threatening branch members to vote for certain candidates. Meetings, claim some members, are held in secret and those known as hostile towards those in office are not invited to attend the meetings lest they vote against them. The head of Umno Kelantan wants to make a police report against these alleged acts of gangsterism. The Deputy Prime Minister, however, feels a police report should not be made, as all ‘internal disputes’ should be settled within Umno. But then, can threats of bodily harm or death be considered ‘internal disputes’ rather than a criminal act, which the police should look into? The role of gangsters in Umno, or any political party for that matter, is not new. Gangsters, secret society or triad members, have been used by the ruling party since the emergence of politics in Malaysia. In fact, gangsters played a prominent role in the street fights during the 13 May 1969 race riots. One such gang leader, Ahmad Chicago from Kampong Baru, a Malay ghetto in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, told me how some Umno leaders approached him to get him to mobilise a force of fighting men. “Oh, when you don’t need us you phone the police to clean up Kampong Baru. The police arrest us and lock us away. Now that you want to fight the Chinese, we have to do the fighting for you,” Ahmad Chicago related what he told the Umno leader representing the Selangor Chief Minister then, Dato’ Harun Idris. Mat Botak, another Kampong Baru secret society or triad boss told me of his experience during May 13, as the 13 May 1969 race riots is now known. “We were patrolling the streets looking for Chinese when an army truck arrived. Some soldiers alighted and asked us whether we wanted some guns.” “Of course we did,” said Mat Botak. “They then passed out some rifles and told us to meet back at the same place at the end of the day to return the guns. The soldiers said if we did not return the guns they would hunt us down.” “That day we went on a shooting spree until all the bullets had been exhausted.” This was confirmed by my wife’s cousin, George Decosta. My wife’s auntie had married someone of Portuguese decent. George, the eldest child married a Chinese lady while the sister married an Indian and the youngest son, Peter, married a Malay girl and converted to Islam. They are in fact quite a ‘mixed’ family. “I was on the roof of our flat (in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur) when we saw the Malays arrive,” said George. “The Chinese came out to face the Malays. They were armed with parangs.” “Suddenly the Malays lifted up their rifles and started shooting.” “The Chinese were totally caught by surprise. They never suspected that the Malays would have guns.” “I stood on the roof of the flat and just watched the Chinese get shot like sitting ducks,” said George. George and his wife have since migrated to Canada, totally disgusted with Malaysia. Yes, gangsters or secret society members are certainly very useful to Umno politicians. And MCA and MIC too are no less guilty of the same crime. Inspector Mansor of the Rantau Panjang Police Station on the Malaysian-Thai border told me that Dato Hussein Ahmad, the Umno kingpin there who is also head of the rice smuggling syndicate, brought in Thai gangsters from Sungai Golok during the elections of the 1970s. Mansor, who is now an Umno Selangor ‘big man’ and head of the ex-policemen's association, said that Dato Hussein informed him of this so that the police would not take action against these gangsters and would leave them alone. “I placed my policemen at all strategic points that were known opposition strongholds. When the people came out to vote, we would stop them at the police roadblocks and ask them for their identity cards,” explained Mansor. “We would then tell them that we have to retain their identity cards for further investigation as we suspected they may be forged. The owners were then asked to come to the police station the next day, the day after polling, to collect them.” “In this way many opposition supporters were not able to vote since they no longer had their identity cards.” “Simultaneously, Dato Hussein’s gangsters from Golok burnt some bridges serving the opposition strongholds. Without these bridges the people could not cross the river to vote.” “Of course police reports were made but our 'official investigation' revealed that the crime had been committed by persons unknown and no arrests were ever made.” Dato Hussein, who later went on to become a Federal Minister, was not only the Rantau Panjang gangster and rice smuggling boss, but he was also the first man to fire his pistol at an Umno division meeting when some members dared stand up to question him. One shot from his pistol silenced all dissenters. The police never pressed charges against him nor was his gun permit withdrawn or his gun confiscated. And Dato Hussein is not the only Umno division leader to fire his pistol at an Umno division meeting. Onn Ismail, the Port Kelang Umno division chief, did the same and no action was taken against him either. Yes, gangsters rule Umno. Another Umno big man, Drs Suleiman, known in Kampong Baru in the 1960s and 1970s as ‘Man Brandy’, was a local triad or secret society boss who controlled the ganja (marijuana) trade. He used to operate from the Jackies Disco in Ampang (now called Ampang Bowl) and the Kampong Baru mosque area. Man Brandy was a fierce gangster boss and many an enemy fell under his parang. He later became an Umno cabinet minister. Then we had Naling from Kawasan Melayu in Petaling Jaya, Man Kucing from Kampong Pandan, Hashim from Kampong Haji Abdullah Hukum in Bangsar, and so on and so forth – all triad bosses who had strong bearings on Malay, meaning Umno, politics, and all whom ‘helped out’ during May 13. Today, Umno laments about gangsters, secret society, or triad involvement in Umno. What are they complaining about? Is not the Umno Youth Gerak Gempur paramilitary unit a gangster force meant to put the fear of death into the hearts of the opposition party workers? The Gerak Gempur has been on a rampage for so long, in every general election and by-election. In the recent general election in March this year, they attacked opposition party workers all over the country. Though numerous police reports were made no action was taken. Take Putrajaya as an example. They kidnapped the opposition candidate’s proposer. They assaulted the candidate’s son. They tore down and defaced opposition posters, flags, banners and billboards. They blockaded the opposition party workers and refused to let them put up opposition flags and posters. And much more, and this was happening all over the country. Though hundreds of police reports were made, no action was taken in spite of the culprits being identified in the police reports. Complaints to the Election Commission also went unheeded. It got so bad that I decided to drive around Putrajaya and cut down all the Umno flags tied to our billboards and posters myself. If the police and Election Commission were not going to take action, then I was going to take matters into my own hand. As I was slashing the Umno flags and flinging them into the middle of the road so that cars passing by can run over them, a car full of Umno Gerak Gempur arrived. I was with my son and my son signalled me of impending trouble. The Gerak Gempur in their traditional paramilitary uniform alighted from the car. One, a huge hulk of a man, pointed at me and started shouting. I recognised him as the man who had beaten up our candidate’s son and I charged him, knife in hand. He saw the knife and backed off. I threw the knife down, for it was so tempting to stick it into his stomach, and we argued. When he realised his size did not intimidate me his tone of voice changed. The police soon arrived and the Gerak Gempur boss asked the police to arrest me. My son charged him and it was with great difficulty I had to hold my son back and stop him from beating the bastard to a pulp. I challenged the police to arrest me but they just stood there dumbfounded. I then told the Umno Gerak Gempur I would give them 24 hours to take down all their flags tied to our posters and billboards. If not I will demonstrate I can be a bigger gangster than them. Yes, we must fight fire with fire. Umno is a party of gangsters. The only way to defend ourselves from these Umno gangsters is to be bigger gangsters than them. It is no use making police reports as the police are with them. We need our own version of the Umno Youth Gerak Gempur, Malaysia’s version of Hitler’s Brown Shirts. And this should be done before the next election in 2009, the 40th anniversary of the Umno sponsored May 13 race riots.
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