Thursday, 12-Feb-2004 2:07 PM

HARAKAH DAILY

The writings were on the wall, but why did we not act early enough?

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Yesterday’s crossover by the 12 Parti Keadilan Nasional (keADILan) second- and third-liner leaders was expected said its President, Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. And their exit will not seriously hurt the party contends Wan Azizah. Maybe so, but there are still pertinent questions that beg answers and Wan Azizah cannot just brush the whole issue aside with a wave of the hand.

The “top gun” in that “Dirty Dozen” is probably Ruslan Kassim, the Negeri Sembilan State Chief and one-time Information Chief of the party. The rest, save for Hanafiah Man, the Chief Editor of Seruan Keadilan (the party newspaper), could be regarded as insignificant.

What do all these defectors have in common? They are all enemies of Ezam Mohd Nor, keADILan’s Youth Leader. They just cannot stand the sight of Ezam and all their efforts at bringing down the Youth Leader have failed, so they have given up and have left the party. The crossovers last night can be attributed to one thing -- infighting.

But infighting is normal in any political party, anywhere in the world. The DAP suffers from it. MCA suffers from it. MIC suffers from it. Gerakan suffers from it. Umno suffers from it, in bigger doses than the others. And so on and so forth! Even PAS, to a certain extent, is not spared infighting, but PAS is cleverly able to contain it and the members do not allow any misunderstanding to override party interests.

Take the controversial Islamic State Document (ISD) as one example. Did you think ALL the PAS members and leaders agree with it? If you were to do a “closed-door” opinion poll, you will find that more are against it than those who support it. Nevertheless, the ISD was pushed through without too much open dissent and the simmering below the surface soon after cooled down and life went back to normal. I suppose, PAS, which is a 53-year old political party, is more mature in this respect compared to some others, even those that may be older.

But the PAS members are able to send the party certain hidden messages about their unhappiness. Mustapha Ali’s failure to win the Deputy Presidency recently is one such hidden message. And the leaders got the message.

The keADILan members and grassroots leaders too have sent their party’s top leadership clear messages. And the messages were not hidden mind you. They were very open and very vocal. But the party leaders chose to ignore them. And they do this at the detriment of the party.

Dr Wan Azizah is a doctor, albeit an eye doctor, and any doctor should know that diseases always bear symptoms. And keADILan had been showing symptoms of a certain disease. And any doctor should know that if you ignore the symptoms, then the disease will spread to a point it becomes terminal.

Pain is nature’s way of telling you there is something wrong with you. You ignore the pain; then eventually you die. A common cold may go away. But a cancer will not. And that is what keADILan had been inflicted with all along, a cancer in the form of infighting.

The second reason for the defections is that many of the keADILan members and grassroots leaders were suffering from AIDS -- an income deficiency syndrome. And they were not suffering from this “disease” due to their own doing but it was a cleverly engineered plan by the ruling party to hurt them where it hurts most, in their pockets.

When I was detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) along with nine others in April 2001, the focus of the marathon interrogation sessions we were subjected to from dawn to dusk were not about bombs, guns, grenade launchers and Molotov Cocktails -- the alleged crime we had committed -- but about where the party gets its finances from, how do we survive, where does our money come from, and so on.

All ten of us were subjected to the same interrogation script. At the end of it all, our interrogators were able to figure out that income from ceramahs and the sale of Reformasi paraphernalia was where most obtained their income. Soon after that, ceramahs were banned and the police clamped down hard on any ceramah with arrests and head-breaking sessions. The street stalls selling VCDs, CDs, etc., were raided, the “illegal” items confiscated, and those petty traders arrested.

Soon the avenues for income were all sealed up and the money, though in dribs and drabs, dried up totally. The opposition members, grassroots leaders and Reformasi activists, though were earning peanuts, now no longer had any source of income whatsoever.

The authorities knew, without any means to put food on the table, these opposition diehards would soon enough “soften”. Those with any skills or qualifications moved on to make a better life for themselves. Some started working. Others opened up food stalls. Perjuangan (struggle) is fine. But if the kids at home are wailing from starvation should not your first priority be to feed them? Islam, after all, says that charity starts at home. And why should one be serving the masyarakat (community) if one’s own family is destitute?

To be fair, the party leadership like Wan Azizah was aware of this. They realised that the “ground” was being squeezed and suffering from an income deficiency syndrome. But there was nothing they could do about it. There were just too many to take care of.

There was one Reformist who needed an expensive heart operation but did not have the money. He appealed for help but everyone he turned to was equally broke. He eventually “ran away” from the hospital because he could no longer afford his stay there. He is now waiting for death to come claim him unless a Samaritan somewhere can fork out the RM60,000 required to save his life.

But even if that Good Samaritan does come forward, what about the many others? One Reformist died recently leaving a widow and two children. Earlier his house was wiped out by a landslide killing one of his sons. He had to build a new house, which the widow would now have to take care of. How do we help this family?

Another hardcore women Reformist’s husband just had his leg amputated due to diabetes. It seems, now, the other leg also needs to be amputated and so far his toes have been cut off to try to save his only leg. How can she continue working for the party with a husband in that condition and with no more money in the kitty?

It is a pathetic situation indeed. All these activists who struggled to try to make this country a better place are now struggling just to stay afloat. While they may have given so much for the sake of a better Malaysia, who will now help them in their hour of need?

Initially, many suffered in silence. They bore it for almost three years. Landlords were chasing families out of their homes due to the many months of unpaid rent. Cars were being repossessed. Those who once used to drive around in Mercedes Benzes now had to travel on buses. I too, who once not only owned a string of Benzes but a Mercedes dealership as well, took to riding a motorcycle.

We took it as all part of the struggle. But then, I may be fortunate. Though my standard of living may have deteriorated drastically, I can still live decently. What about the many others who may not be as fortunate as I? How do they continue with their lives?

Take Ruslan Kassim as one example. For the last couple of years it was apparent he was in dire straits. He was borrowing money from left, right and centre. He even owed me about RM60,000 which I knew I would never see again. And I calculated that Ruslan had debts easily in excess of RM500,000, many in the form of “loans” which the loaner sort of wrote-off the day they handed the money to him, as they knew it was a one-way street.

The party leadership also knew this. Ruslan, who was then the Information Chief, was not performing. Eventually, the Information Bureau office closed down, as Ruslan could no longer sustain it, yet he was still appointed the Negeri Sembilan State Chief. Did the top party leadership not realise that Ruslan was an accident waiting to happen? And Ruslan was not the only one in this predicament. Zahid Md Arip, is another case in point.

Granted, Wan Azizah is too nice a person. Ruslan had served the party well. He was even detained under the ISA because of his loyalty to Anwar Ibrahim. How can she or the party now just dump him? Would this not be zalim (cruel)?

This would be like saying it is cruel to amputate the leg that has gangrene. In fact, if the toes had been cut off earlier, the leg could probably have been saved. Now, due to neglect, the leg has to go. And, if neglected any further due to sayang (love) for the leg, the patient will certainly die.

Wan Azizah cannot afford to be a nice person. She has to be a strong leader. When an amputation is required, an amputation needs to be done. You cut off the leg to save the body. There are no two ways about it. And Wan Azizah, as a doctor, should know this.

If Ruslan and those “AIDS” patients had been removed, the party could have been spared this embarrassment of the defections. Wan Azizah should have known that the defections were inevitable. The only question is the timing, and it makes sense that the timing should be close to the coming election. But at least, if they did defect, they would not have been able to do so while holding “sensitive” positions in the party. That way, the party’s image would not suffer too much.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad may have been a dictator. But he was a strong party leader and he would have nipped it in the bud, like what he did with Anwar Ibrahim though mercilessly at that. And that is why Mahathir can be considered a “good” politician. Even Prophet Muhammad dealt with the enemy using the sword when all reasoning failed. One must take proactive action and not reactive like what the party is doing now in the damage control exercise following the defections.

Take my word, there are many still around who are in dire straits. Also, take my word we could probably see more defections in the days or weeks to come. Some, in fact, have “quietly” slipped away and are no longer active in the party, waiting for the “right” time to announce their defection. And there is nothing we can do about this, short of paying them a handsome monthly salary to make them stay. But then, we do not have barrels of money like UMNO does.

The positive aspect of these defections is that these people, except for people like Hanafiah Man, were not productive anyway. Their exit will not really hurt the party because they had not been contributing to the party for some time now. Maybe, in a way, this is actually good. Now that we are rid of the deadwood their places can be filled by more capable people who can really contribute to the party. We no longer need to let these people hold posts in the party, not because they are the best for the post, but because we kenang jasa (in consideration of their past services).

At worse, the party will suffer an image problem due to these defections last night. But then, in politics, image is everything and that is why UMNO is making a big show out of the whole thing. While we can easily replace these people -- which was what should have been done earlier anyway -- we will not be able to overcome that negative image problem that easily.

And this the party must address. And Wan Azizah now has to be brutal and identify those potential defectors and chop them off. And it is not too difficult to identify who they are. In fact, if you keep those bad apples around any longer, the good ones might instead leave out of disgust, like one or two have already done.