The National Front (BN), at its meeting last week, would not admit three political parties into its fold. No reasons given, as it need not, but the three parties were Indian, and rejected because the MIC, THE Indian party in the BN objected. The three parties are the Indian Progressive Front, the Punjabi Party of Malaysia, and the Congress of Indian Muslims of Malaysia (KIMMA). The People's Progressive Party (PPP), who could not persuade the IPF to self-destruct in it, now hopes the PPM would. KIMMA wanted to be in the BN long before the other two parties were formed. No doubt the BN council had a good laugh over these perennial no-hopers, but it reflects a larger malaise.

UMNO and its partners in the Alliance and, later, the BN, in power since 1955, has lost its way in the 46 years since. What started off as a coalition of three political parties, representing the three major races, is now an unwieldy grouping of 14 political parties. The three parties should have been added by two more when Sarawak and Sabah joined it, but UMNO in its wisdowm allowed individual members of the alliance in Sabah and Sarawak to join. It had to be increased when UMNO lost ground after the May 13 racial riots in 1969. Then the Chinese and Indian parties, the MCA and MIC, in their arrogance, split their respective communities. The smaller the party the more severe the split. So, it is not surprising that the Indians are divided so many ways, on racial, linguistic, regional grounds. The MIC insists on Tamil as the only Indian language, and this led to the Indian minorities to seek refuge in their own language and community. The MIC's refusal to consider any communities other than the Tamils led to the Northern Indians disaffected, and fractured into more communities than there are fingers in your hand.

This was missed when the BN rejected the trio of parties as members. UMNO and the BN has given up its independence promise of racial and political integration. Instead, the country is fractured into myriads of groups of every conceivable definition: racial, religious, regional, linguistic, cultural, and under a Malay and Muslim hegemony. The country veers irrevocably to a Malay existence, with the non-Malays allowed to stay on sufferance. The civil service is so Malay- and Islamic-oriented that a small group of Malay and Islamic ayatollahs force-feed it. No one dare challenge them, and a newly appointed officer curries their favour by making sure he leaves his office more Islamic and Malay than when he took it. He does this often against opposition from his officers, but steamrolls it through, often without discussion, and presents them with a fait accompli. No one at this stage dare reverse it. Secretaries-general are frightened of them, and is helpless at this unsanctioned practice. There is a "glass ceiling" beyond which a non-Malay officer cannot aspire to, and applies to every ministry and office. It is roughly equivalent to the rank of major general in the army. And it is no more than one of two in every ministry.

The non-Malay political parties have given up the ghost. They should have raised it at a political level but did not. Their leaders decide to ignore their communities, and bask in this short-term glory of Uncle Toms, unwilling to rock the boat and happy they survive. So much so the communities are divided irrevocably into a political wing with no power in office and all but ignored by its more powerful cultural wing. This is so in all three communities and their political parties -- Malays, Chinese, Indians and UMNO, MCA and MIC. In all three communities, their political party presidents led both the community's political and cultural wings. That is no so. The cultural wing is at odds with the political. The conflicts within the communities is a sign of that. This would continue with a vengeance in a leaderless vaccuum. The cultural wing would form their own political parties and come to terms with, now, the BN; but if the BN loses its hold, than with any other group that fills its place.

Political power in the BN is personal to holder, who clings to it to the exclusion of power for the community they represent. So, what UMNO wants, the BN parties go along. The ease with which civil servants can persuade the non-Malay party members in state assemblies and local councils to act against their community is a sign more serious than is admitted. They ignore time-honoured government rules which forbid, for instance, the wanton changing of road names with a history behind it. So, Jalan Koo Chong Kong in Ipoh is renamed, for no rhyme or reason, Jalan Tabung Haji; Batu Caves in Selangor Selayang. The Kuala Lumpur City Council arbitrarily raises the licence fees for dogs five times to RM50, and the number of dogs one can keep depends on where you stay. (But for two years, the dogs wear no dog tags: they were ordered too late and arrived well after the licences had been issued. But that is another story.)

What happens then is a country that has lost its way, with non-political groups growing so important that they dominate in secret. The BN does not know if it comes or goes. This is reflected in how it governs. The individual party leaders have only one aim: to shut out challengers. Many cannot face the communities they represent in cabinet. And the communities split into political and communal groups. No one in office is bothered. All are frightened and worry about the headlong clash between UMNO and PAS for the Malay Muslim heartland that a new star, Keadilan, threatens to mop up those Malays who believe politics is best left not to religious leaders. There is no corresponding option for the Chinese and Malays. This is reflected in the number of Chinese and Indian political parties, however insignificant they are, wanting to be members of the BN. That they do is what frightens, but UMNO and the BN is, as always, unconcerned on what they had wrought on the body politic through the years.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my