Justifying defeat at Lunas 
Susan Loone 

3:09pm, Thu: It is interesting to note how politicians from the ruling coalition strive to justify their loss at the recent Lunas by-election. Instead of looking inward with remorse and repentance, Umno Youth leaders - who had been given the task to maintain Barisan Nasional's two-thirds majority in the Kedah state assembly - have been at each other's throats. 

Similar to Keadilan's vice-chairman Tian Chua’s “tantrums” of resigning over BA’s candidacy, Umno Youth deputy chief Abdul Aziz Sheikh Fadzil also did a Ling Liong Sik-style resignation sandiwara. Almost the entire BN machinery accused the opposition of inciting racial and religious sentiments and employing “dirty tactics” to win votes. Barisan Alternatif would have done the same if the election results had favoured BN. 

After a two-week melodrama of the Keadilan-DAP squabble over which party should field the candidate for Lunas, the media is now hot on the trail of Umno Youth and its multi-faceted problems ranging from leadership malaise and massive erosion of Malay support to the need for reformasi within the party itself. 

Umno Youth chief Hishammuddin Tun Hussein Onn has been taking the rap but this would only serve to cloud the real reasons behind the Lunas defeat. 

Several parties had come out vocally to question his leadership in the youth wing when dwindling support for the BN and Umno in particular had occurred way before Lunas and the last general elections, judging by the decline in the actual number of voters supporting BN. 

Much as they hate to admit it, the crisis within Umno “hit the streets” with the sacking of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim. The crisis intensified when he was sentenced to a total of 15 years’ in jail for corruption, relating to abuse of power, and sodomy offences. 

So, to condemn Hishammuddin or throw light on his party's crisis to explain the fall-out in Lunas is to discount the fact that there are bigger issues that have triggered the shift in votes from a traditionally BN candidate to one from Keadilan, headed by Anwar’s wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. 

To blame Umno Youth largely for the loss of a two-thirds majority in the Kedah state assembly is to deny the reality that voters are slowly beginning to realise that they have the power to determine the kind of future for themselves and their children. 

A better hero 

It is with this power that the people of Lunas sent a clarion call to the Prime Minister and showed that his effort in preserving Malay special rights while condemning the efforts of others such as the Chinese lobby Suqiu’s 17-point election appeal is no longer perceived as a heroic act. 

One who challenged authority, exercised his rights daringly and opted for a jail term instead of paying his fine like how PAS Youth chief and MP for Pokok Sena Mahfuz Omar did made him a better hero than one who spent billions of ringgit building mega-projects such as the KLIA, KLCC-Petronas Twin Towers, Sepang F1 race circuit and the Multi-Media Super Corridor in Putrajaya. 

Lunas folks worked hand in hand regardless of race, religion and economic standing to tell the Prime Minister and his loyalists that national issues such as infringement of human rights and gross abuse of power are the issues that will eventually decide the voting pattern of the country, not a mere make-over of the state's infrastructure and physical landscape. 

Total revamp 

It is not only Umno Youth but all the BN component parties which need a total revamp, not merely in terms of leadership but management styles as well as ideals and ideology. 

BN’s outward show of multi-racialism is a mockery when the very basis of the party's ideology is politics based on race. If the coalition is a success, how does it explain itself during campaigns when one component party (Umno) had threatened to burn down a building which signifies the existence of some members and supporters of its closest allies (MCA and Gerakan) for allegedly challenging the ever-sensitive Bumiputra and non-Bumiputra distinction? 

With its racial backdrop, how does BN explain its promotion of racial integration, its awareness of racial polarisation in universities and seriousness in wanting to reduce racial discrimination by lecturing the Chinese education movement Dong Jiao Zong of the Vision School concept when government schools deny children of the right to learn their own religion and mother tongue-language and universities practise a quota system based on race? 

It does not take a genius to question BN's credibility and denial of money politics when millions of ringgit are poured into development projects and all government machinery pushed to the limits to help achieve Works Minister S Samy Vellu's desired aim come election date. 

How do BN ministers and members of parliament command respect from individuals they supposedly represent when they pour scorn on allegations of police brutality on civilians exercising rights to freedom of speech and assembly such as the Kesas highway assembly leading to the 100,00 People's Gathering on Nov 5 when those rights are provided for in the Federal Constitution? 

How can BN MPs repair their deteriorating image when some were engaged in fist-fighting and labelling an opposition state assemblyman with derogatory terms while professing the notion of power-sharing between the races and respect for one another's race, culture and religion? 

Can the BN government proclaim that it is transparent and accountable to the public when the country's top officials including the attorney general and anti-corruption agency officers are hand-picked by the prime minister? 

How can the Human Resources Ministry claim that it protects workers' rights when a few hundred thousand estate workers have been denied the right to a minimum wage - a matter that has been raised again and again - for the past 50 years at least; when employees in the electronics sector have been denied the right to set up unions; when the Employees Provident Fund has supported a legislative amendment reducing benefits for a large number of employees and introducing a controversial pension scheme which a consumer group study has shown to be more beneficial to insurance companies handling the scheme than to EPF members? 

The unions learnt the hard way that the presence of an Umno unionist in the Dewan Negara does not guarantee workers' rights when the government blatantly ignores the economic rights and freedom of association of workers. 

All these and more are the consideration that voters will make when casting their votes in coming by-elections or the next general elections. Crisis looming or existing in any of the political parties (BN or BA) will have little effect on voters' decisions on polling day (as evident in the Keadilan-DAP quarrel) when smart voters are now more interested in whether national and state policies can benefit them as a whole, as Malaysians. 

In the final analysis, it is good governance, justice for all and total respect for the rule of law that will eventually restore the nation's dignity and gain the respect of the international community; not physical monuments, outward show of patriotism like the national car project or achieving fantastic feats just to enter the Guinness Book of Records. 

Scrutinise further and indeed, there are fundamental flaws in the country's entire government and administration that need serious review and massive revamps. Spending time and energy merely trying to calm a tiny storm brewing in a teacup such as the present crisis in Umno Youth will result in BN, and particularly Umno, being removed further away from the pulse and reality of the nation and its future.