What is true is that after Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. we have Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to be the next Prime Minister.

What is also true is that after Mahathir will be Mahathirism. It is the internalization of Mahathir’s rule for 22 long years punctuated by his national and world’s views. His influence over UMNO and Barisan Nasionalleaders will linger for a long time to come.

What is so very true is that it does not matter who is in power or who takes over power, capitalism remains the guiding force behind Malaysian development policies whereby exploitation and hypocrisy are brought to a highly sophisticated level (’sophistry made to a fine art’) to nurture monopoly capital and the usurpation of the national and world’s wealth through the borderless world of globalization (a palatable and neutral name for imperialism).

Badawi Marginalized

AA Badawi gets marginalized as Mahathir continue to hog the local and international scenes. Unfortunately the recent massive media hype on Mahathir gives the impression that we are witnessing eulogies being churned out to praise the dead or else there are deliberate efforts to install Mahathir as the demigod on earth. So the so-called humble Mahathir could have put a stop to all this if he really wants to. But he chooses to wallow in such orchestrated glory. The recent government sponsored demonstrations for peace and signature campaigns during the NAM and OIC Conferences was to prop Mahathir’s image as the prominent international figure who had the support of the entire Malaysian people. So Mahathir wants to go out with a big bang and there are enough cronies within his administration who are willing to grease up his ego. It is puzzling why Mahathir did not make such strong calculated moves many years ago rather than passing the buck to AA Badawi who now has to carry the burden of Mahathir’s impressive high profile political blitz. Mahathir’s next stop is to lobby and head the Dinar Currency.

We would have expected that while praising Mahathir the media would also provide earnest time and space to acknowledge and boost Badawi’s image as the next Prime Minister (or is he not !!? ) so that the people get to know him better as a person and understand his vision for a better Malaysia. After the hype over Mahathir, the lip service given to AA Badawi as the next Prime Minister will be an anti-climax. In fact the media along with Mahathir’s cronies totally marginalized AA Badawi.

Mahathir’s Continuing Desire For Control

After 22 years as the Prime Minister, Mahathir now turns around and puts his old political friends in a quandary, asking them to follow his footsteps by retiring along with him. His rationale is that if he can retire so can the rest of the politicians. Such hypocrisy II So what is good for Mahathir is automatically good for everybody. Mahathir still wants the world to revolve around him. For all we know the many crying episodes were merely to test whether he still got the peoples support. By the twist of fate they actually accepted his resignation. If he is a man of principle the decision to resign is very serious indeed. But for him to constantly retract his decisions to resign (after making dramatic resignation overtures) reflected badly on him. As such these actions were either done on the spur of the moment for political mileage or laced with a hidden agenda to indirectly blackmail the nation. People thought that the last crying incident was another one of his stunts until UMNO and Barisan National sealed his fate.

The Problem With Cronies

I always wonder what rushes through AA Badawi’s mind when such jingoism and ego pandering of Mahathir are taking place right in front of his very eyes. The next billion dollar question will be, what will be the fate of Mahathir’s cronies when he leaves the premiership? As usual when Badawi takes over the premiership he will groom his own cronies and so the cycle of cronies upon cronies will grow in ever-expanding circle. Now the old and new cronies will compete amongst themselves to win a place in AA Badawi’s bandwagon. They will now try to impress the new leadership by their overt aggressive display of total loyalty and hard hitting condemnations against the ’enemies’ of the new leader. That happened when Anwar was marginalized by Mahathir. Some of Anwar’s ardent supporters tumed tail and become overzealous in condemning Anwar hoping to get Mahathir’s attention. Some of these cronies and sub-cronies get absorbed into the new administration and others sacrificed along the way. Maybe Mahathir knew the obvious scenario and he was trying to save his cronies by asking them to retire themselves before being dumped unceremoniously by the new leadership. Mahathir knew fully well that the culture of deliberately wiping out (’Budaya cantas mencantas’) the supporters of the losers and the opposition leaders have been in vogue during his tenure as the Prime Minister. Just look at the fate of the supporters of Tengku Razaleigh, Musa, Ghafar, Anwar. Soon Mahathir’s political and capitalists cronies will also be subjected to such harsh treatment.

The Making of Middleman Rather Than Capitalists

So Badawi has to deal with the new breed of cronies who are eagerly waiting to pounce on the nation’s economic pie with the hope of becoming the new generation of capitalists par excellence. Unfortunately the cronies who become millionaires are mere elite group of middleman who get rich by exacting exhorbitant commissions through government owned projects or government controlled projects. Of course the top leaders will also get their percentage cuts. Some cronies will also be given lavish government projects and free shares from the government as incentives for being ultra loyal to their political masters. These government pampered capitalists and cronies are usually the ones who get wiped out when shares in the stock Market plummet during the economic crisis. Thus for Badawi to ever want to abolish such atrocities he needs to overhaul the capitalist system that is rampaging the country rather than try to fine-tuned it. Can he take such giant forceful step or will he accept the fact that his job is to keep capitalism and Mahathir’s legacy alive.

Failed Prediction

Frankly we thought that the next general elections would take place before or in the month of October 2003. Knowing that Mahathir dominated the political and power scenes for 22 years I would have expected that even after his retirement he would not want to totally relinquish his privileges and power base too abruptly. The vacuum will be intolerable for him. If the election occurs before October, he can then choose his own candidates to go into election at the expense of AA Badawi’s candidates. He can also reaffirm the top positions of those in the police, judiciary, ACA and the various agencies in the government to ensure that he will be protected when he finally retires. He can also set the stage to ensure that he becomes the senior minister or advisor to the government. Furthermore Mahathir will still have his say over Anwar’s imprisonment and be able to neutralize any accusations relating to him (Mahathir), his family, his cronies and those under his administration. The very fact that this prediction did not materialize is puzzling. Or if he executes such move he may be accused of being power hungry and may be subjected to public ridicule. But it may also indicate that Mahathir is confident that the new leadership will provide him with the necessary immunity and given the assurance that he will not be subjected to judicial attacks. Or is it possible that a clandestine deal has been made to ensure his free and safe passage. In fact the media hype has made Mahathir invincible. Time will tell.

Capitalism Continues To Rear It’s Ugly Head

After having reviewed the possible political scenarios and despite the administrations of Mahathir and AA Badawi, we will still see crony (or chronic) capitalist tendencies flourishing at unprecedented rate. Politicians will continue to become cronies or sub- cronies by placing themselves as the fighting cocks (’ayam sabung’) for those local and foreign capitalists. We will soon find out that the fine tuning of capitalism augers well for AA Badawi’s administration and as such the legitimization of exploitation for maximization of profits and consolidation of power in the hands of a few, will be the order of the day.

So we should expect capitalism to rear it’s ugly head in frightening ways. We should expect the cyclic nature of economic boom and bust to reappear every 10 to 12 years with big capitalists competing to monopolize the local and foreign markets by annihilating or subjugating the medium and small capitalists. Or the smaller capitalists merge to strengthen themselves and to take on the bigger capitalists and oligopolists. The workers will be exploited in more sophisticated ways, for capitalists know that their source of profits revolves around the overt and covert exploitations of the workers (profits gained in share market speculations are not new profits but mere redistribution of already existing profits). As expected the capitalists will use their influence and power to manipulate politicians and the state apparatus (agencies) to victimize and neutralize other capitalists, activists, workers and their leaders.

The struggle for profits. power and political control becomes rampant (at the intra and inter levels) especially during the economic crisis. Corruption, cronyism, nepotism and collusion will be selectively nurtured to act as indispensable conduits to ensure the smooth running (’greasing’) of the capitalist system. But such debased acts will dialectically become fetters to the capitalists especially with the declining profits during the economic crisis.

Pattern Of Administration

We find that those relegated with power tend to follow certain administrative pattem throughout their tenure as leaders. Three general tendencies can be recognized. There is the initial ’Period Of Liberalism’ favoring more democratic space; release of political detainees; scheduling meetings with the public, visiting marginalized communities, the ever smiling and caring ministers threatening those leaders who abuse their powers etc.

Soon this will be followed by the middle ’Period of Sloganeering’ to win the hearts and minds of the people and supposedly to push them to greater heights using slogans such as ’leadership by example’, ’Clean, Efficient and Trustworthy’ etc. But when more and more slogans continue to appear then we know something is amiss. A cover-up of abuses and diversion tactics are already in place and moving in full gear. Now the most influential and powerful individuals or groups of individuals will legitimize their hidden agenda (veiling their personal greed) by superimposing them onto the needs and aspirations of the entire population. Thus the terms ’individualism’, ’democracy’, ’national security’, ’justice’, ’basic rights’ etc have often been manipulated to win the support of the people so that abuses by despotic governments and capitalists can be rationalized, justified and legitimized.

Finally when the voices of genuine dissent continue to grow and threaten to expose abuses, then you get the final ’Period of Iron Fist Tactics’, whereby the Internal Security Act (ISA) will be invoked to arbitrarily arrest (without trial) their political enemies. They can even fabricate a ’state of siege’ as if neighboring countries are already beefing-up their defense system to attack our country and will even accuse our locals leaders as collaborators. Or they can create a situation whereby certain individuals or groups within the country are plotting to overthrow the government through violent means. The leadership will even spark up racial tensions so as to create the fear of impending racial riots with the subsequent destruction and loss of private property. This itself will justify the declaration of a state of emergency. The idea is to instill a permanent state of fear where people and their leaders voluntarily exercise total self-censorship thus depoliticizing and paralyzing genuine demands. This is done to divert peoples attention away from the government and capitalist abuses by forcing them to focus on specific issues relating to individual(s) , race, opposition political parties This iron fist tactic of mass arrest and the fabrication of a country in a state of siege are much needed for the existing government to buy more time to recoup and resolve its internal conflicts; preparing to collude with new allies within the same political party and/or with opposition leaders); and creating new proxies amongst non- government agencies, institutions and NGO’s, religion, region, gender etc.

Govern Through Disunity

Finally we come to the conclusion that the government of the day actually rule through the policy of disunity (divide and rule’) rather than the policy of unity and solidarity based upon genuine democracy, freedom and justice. The tactical use of ’force and consent’to intimidate, control and bait the people becomes the all-consuming political agenda for elected leaders. Such move augers well with the aspirations of the capitalists and their cronies for greater freedom to plunder the wealth of the nation. They have the instinctive fear and distrust for their own people and prefer blind loyalty rather than wanting to interact with innovative, dynamic and critical minds.

The Unscrupulous Media

Throughout these three periods of administration we find that there is also the build up of media hype to prop the image of specific leader(s). This push will eventually lead to character assassinations, misinformation, and disinformation towards their political enemies. Editors who are willing to prostitutize their professions will head such aggressive campaigns. They do it to consolidate their positions for future promotions or hoping for lucrative political positions in the ruling government. Thus we see the on going saga of glorifying individuals and dictators alike; the marginalization of their deputies (dictators and despots do not want strong and aggressive deputies); the push for mind boggling and multi-billon dollars prestigious projects to impress the world at the expense of the welfare of the poor by depleting the national reserves, tax payers money; the tendency to hike up the prices of shares owed by the government and it’s subsidiaries in the Stock Exchange prior to the general elections so as to boost it’s image and at the same time use the extra funds for election purposes; aggressive competition amongst politicians (as proxies of capitalists) to own or control the media and financial institutions; the deliberate creation of ’dependency syndrome’ whereby people become totally dependent on government handouts thus crippling initiatives. Such dependency has a strong controlling effect over society by creating perpetual indebtedness, helplessness and low self-esteem.

Plight Of Workers

Despite of the ongoing scenarios, the plight of the workers continues to take center stage. (The middle class professionals who cater for the needs of the capitalists belong to the working class as long as they continue to receive wages (remunerations) for their physical and mental labor). The workers are not only exploited materially and mentally at their workplace but also constantly exposed to hazardous conditions. Since they cannot afford proper housing, they are forced to stay in squatter areas. Unfortunately every Malaysia Plan will mention the problems of housing for the poor. More often than not the construction of low cost houses are being sacrificed for the medium cost and high cost houses I condomenium. In the same breath, ministers and politicians have the gall to support these housing developers. These leaders lack the political will to confront these developers and we wonder why many accuse them of corrupt practice. For most of the workers the land that they settled and developed into communities were promised to them in the early seventies. But they became squatters overnight when the developers with the help of local politicians, land offices, police and local municipalities gang-up to evict them. They survived on broken promises and always hoping against hope that one day these political leaders will honor the promises made to them.

It is also unfortunate that at times the union leaders become too complacent and to comfortable. They betray their own workers and are very reluctant to confront the management and this is reflected in the shoddy Collective Agreements that greatly favor the management. They avoid the welfare of their workers beyond the workplace. Thus the capitalists demand for greater profits always override the rights of workers for decent wages and better working conditions. In short as long as workers are not politicized they will continue to be modern slaves to be exploited at will.

Dichotomization of Society

This exploitative relationship at workplace has dichotomized society creating unresolved polar relationships between workers (labor) and capitalists (capital); the rich and poor; strong and weak; highly educated and lowly educated; leaders and followers; theory and practice; free competition and monopoly; offence and defense; tactic and strategy etc. etc. This unresolved dichotomy has resulted in untold misery, confusions and confrontations and lead to the emergence of extreme forms of individualism; dictatorial tendencies usurping more power and wealth; materialistic and manipulative tendencies at the expense of family, friends and country and the blatant destruction of the environment. Exploitation at workplace not only saps the dignity of the workers but also results in alienation and a sense of helplessness. This alienation at workplace eventually spills over into the family and in the society manifesting extreme forms of depressions, fatalism, violent tendencies, suicide, breakup of family, wife and child abuses, religious fanaticism, drug abuse etc. etc. But again, such dichotomized conditions are desirable for those who want to rule the nation through disunity (divide and rule). Thus there is no political will and no concerted effort to seek the unity, balance and harmony between these polar attributes of economic and social needs of society .

What Needs To Be Done?

At a glance the scenario looks bleak as if we have no control over them. So what needs to be done? For sure we can explain how capitalism works. We can also explain how the workers in particular and the public (as consumers) in general being exploited to cater for the greed of the capitalists and their cronies. We can even explain the problems of society by interpreting, labeling and rationalizing them away. But the point is to change them.

Peoples Power

What we need to do is to go back to our people for they are our source of strength and inspiration. Only people’s power will make the difference. We must to listen to them and work with them to fight for their rights. In short we have to win small battles to ever win the war. Our experiences with urban pioneers (’squatters’), plantation workers, factory workers, workers in the services industry, hawkers, farmers, environmental pollution etc. gave us insights to the psyche, strengths and weaknesses of marginalized communities. Once they have understood their own history as the backbone of the national economy and national development; how they grew together as a community; how they suffered through the painful, bitter experiences and shoddy treatment by the various politicians, government agencies, courts and the police etc., then they will realize that they have no choice but to consolidate their power (peoples power) by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of these authorities and exposing the abuses, corruption and their manipulations to stifle peoples legitimate rights. They will become a powerful force once they have internalized such rights and continue to derive valuable lessons from their involvement in human rights demonstrations; May Day celebrations; sending memorandum to the various authorities including ACA, Public Complaints Bureau, Suhakam; making reports against abuses by specific police officers at the Police Headquarters (Bukit Aman); initiate company search to verify the profile of shareholders and directors, identify irregularities on the acquisition of the property; liaise with NGO’s for support; and utilize whatever available democratic space no matter how distant and futile they seemed to be.

We would have expected a lot from the opposition political parties to alleviate the problems of the poor. But to do that they must also offer convincing alternatives and formulate viable programs to act as development models for the country. Unfortunately some prefer to be permanent opposition political parties and are quite agreeable to the idea of fine tuning the capitalist system rather than debunking this exploitative capitalist system to seek new and dynamic alternatives to development.

Dr. Mohd Nasir Hashim

Parti Sosialis Malaysia

30^th. October 2003