By Ishwar Nahappan
In the euphoria of the opposition severely denting Barisan’s overwhelming dominance of the Malaysian Parliament and further taking control of 5 state governments, the opposition should be cognizant of the extent to which some senior members of UMNO will stoop to in order to sustain themselves in power. UMNO controls all key instruments of government whether it be the police, army, civil service, judiciary and additionally, all aspects of media.
Historically, since 1970 with the inception of the NOC and more obviously since 1981, when Mahathir became Prime Minister, all instruments of government were ruthlessly and cynically manipulated at his whims and fancies. Unfortunately, this policy has been continued by many UMNO leaders in order to perpetuate their power and more importantly, the rich gravy train.
UMNO is presently like a wounded tiger ready to attack anything that presents a threat to their continued power, continuance of the rich gravy train and the dominance of the party by a few well established families. They will use all instruments of government and media to whip up the more radical elements of their party into frenzy and thereby re-establish control under the pretext of maintaining law, order and stability.
Therefore, at this very early juncture of Malaysian democratic renaissance, it would be prudent not to provide any ammunition to UMNO leaders for them to distort seemingly innocent statements which could be misrepresented to the Malay community. We now have to be very circumspect in the positions we take, the statements we make and perhaps even use the art of Wayang Kulit posturing which is a specialty of UMNO leaders.
In particular, I would draw everyone’s attention to 2 great Asian philosophers, Sun Tzu and Chanakya who both subscribed in their own individual way, “not to reveal what they thought upon doing, but by wise council kept it secret being determined to carry it into execution”.