Chapter 5: The Academic as Politician, Episode 3: Becoming Wakil Rakyat

The distinction between the work of politics and politics of work was put to the test almost immediately after the division was formed.  The prospect of being a parliamentary candidate brought the question to the fore.  Everyone was talking about it, close friends in the party and outside, and professional associates from the MIER days.  Why would he be brought into the party by the top leadership, if not to bring him into government?  At the time when many aspiring, even veteran politicians were nervous and weren’t sure whether they would be selected by the leadership to represent the party in the upcoming 1995 General Elections, everyone who is someone in the party had taken it for granted that I would for certain be nominated to stand as the BN/UMNO’s candidate for the new Wangsa Maju parliamentary constituency.  Zainal Dahlan, UMNO Kuala Selangor division chief, whom I had courted, and who subsequently had got his people to endorse me for support during the 1963 Supreme Council elections, openly declared it.  Others, rivals maybe, from among those who had been round the block many times, elected to remain silent.  This is party politics, and what being a politician is all about ultimately.  But I had not even rounded the block once yet.

I cannot deny that becoming a wakil rakyat had played on my mind, but I had chosen to silently go with the flow, and let events take their course.  To be honest, I didn’t plan to be a wakil rakyat, in spite of my boyhood admiration for Tun Dr. Ismail (the Utusan Melayu image of him in Malay regalia delivering his speech at the 1957 UN General Assembly session in New York still stark in my mind!).  At least not to the extent that I had planned my undergraduate and graduate studies.  But RMC’s “Serve to Lead” credo remained uppermost: getting into politics was for me an opportunity to payback the community.  Trapped in this state of mind, I deigned to go through the rigmarole of politics, feigning total commitment to the process of being one of the political boys (“politikus” in local vernacular).  It was tough going, grassroots politics, and the honeymoon period was too short for a political neophyte.  

My portrait in crayon by
my friend Geof Missen
painted in 1998

And so it was that the political knives were taken out of their sheaths and sharpened, both at the division level as well as at the Federal Territory liaison level.   The elections for the Wangsa Maju divisional committee was duly held, which had basically endorsed the leadership slate I had put together during the pro-tem stage eight months earlier.  By the end of 1994, the Wangsa Maju UMNO division had 56 branches, with nineteen new branches added to the existing 37 from the combined contribution of the original Batu and Titiwangsa divisions, a total membership of just under 10,000 and a constituency of just over 51,000 voters. The MCA and MIC, the other two major component parties of the Barisan Nasional, the ruling party, had their own branch organizations, as well as the smaller PPP and Gerakan parties, to serve the constituency.

When the Wangsa Maju UMNO division was formed, I commissioned a divisional song, “Majulah Wangsa”, with lyrics and music by a local composer member, to try to unite the factions in UMNO Wangsa Maju.  A recording of it was played at every UMNO division and branch function, right after the UMNO party song and Negara-Ku.  But I could not reduce the factional in-fighting, made worse by the addition of the former Titiwangsa branches now incorporated into Wangsa Maju, and my own Lembah Pantai holdover, exacerbating the woes of the two Batu factions.  Sponsoring new branches became a means to strengthening each power base, the minimum membership being 50 for each new branch which entitles each branch to two delegates besides the branch chief, to the divisional elections.  That is the source of political power at the grassroots and the currency of the UMNO warlords.  If you ask a UMNO politikus, obviously they will say a commitment to the party’s struggle, the redemption of the Malays.  But the glue that binds all turns out to be money.

Money politics had seeped into UMNO beginning with the 1987 party contest; it became rampant after the Team-Team B saga.  In previous times before that watershed event, politics was service driven, and during the formative years contests for posts were rare.  Teachers offered their services to the “national struggle” at the grassroots level and a party spirit and camaraderie pervaded the political atmosphere.  With economic prosperity and rising economic stakes politics change from its service orientation to a matter of exchange: trading political support for favours, and later monetary compensations.  In the end, at the divisional level as at the national stage, party politics become a high-stakes game enmeshed in a crass competition, political careerism, feudalistic warlordism and nepotism.

I was thrown into this political milieu on taking up the Wangsa Maju division chief’s post.  I was an academic and a businessman before I became a politician, so was totally unprepared to weather the rough and tumble of a politician’s everyday life.  At the first division elections, after the pro-tem period, I was elected unopposed as the division chief, thanks to the sleek grassroots organization and tactics of Ahmad Yahya and cohorts who formed “my people”.  Ahmad Yahya intimated that his faction, to which I had become attached as with a political umbilical cord, had planned a three-term parliamentary presence in Wangsa Maju.  I acquiesced quietly to this plan, knowing deep down that “shortermism” is the political credo of the day.  Longevity in politics involved too many compromises which I wasn’t sure even at that time I would be able to stomach.  But I remained positive and fatalistic at the same time.

Preparation for the April 1996 General Elections proceeded quite smoothly.  I was in Pulai Johore when the announcement to annul the current parliament was made, and quickly made the return trip to KL to initiate and launch the Wangsa Maju BN election machinery.  The division had been primed for this a few months before this, with the heads of the various units in the election committee duly appointed, and the respective teams already trained.  The system had been well established in UMNO, having the benefit of eight successful general elections in the almost 50-year history of the party.  The grassroots leaders were well practiced in their tasks, but new members have to be trained to bring them up to speed.

I received my letter of authorization (watikah) to be the official Barisan National candidate for Wangsa Maju from the Federal Territory liaison chief, Mohammed Mohd Taib, the Mentri Besar of Selangor, in his office in Shah Alam.  After a short prayer of thanks at the state mosque, we proceeded back to Wangs Maju for a division rally of election workers in the UMNO division headquarters to officially launch the BN campaign machinery.  With my own funds I had the UMNO Wanghsa Maju HQ built in late 1994 on Tenaga National reserve land that had reverted back to the state development corporation PKNS, at the main road junction close to the Selangor Pewter factory, and in front of the singer Hail Amir’s restaurant, our informal “official” eating place.  The Selangor Mentri Besar himself had approved our application for the land.

Utusan Malaysia had reported that I had given a “fiery” speech at that meeting of campaign workers, never heard before that, that even surprised many of my own close supporters.   The occasion I supposed had called for it in order to excite and rally the troops.   For what chance would there be for my success without their active involvement and support.  As a plebe and new candidate, I had to be introduced to the people of Wangsa Maju, and perforce must begin with UMNO grassroots members themselves.

UMNO had developed such a deeply entrenched culture of patronage and a model of loyalty and political affiliation that mirrored the larger Malay society, that made it difficult to effect change or otherwise to do things in a different way from what members have become used to.  This in-built resistance thus prevents political innovation.  This characteristic would also be applicable to the situation when a candidate is inserted by the leadership from above to run for elections (the “parachute” candidate), either in the party or in the general election, who would naturally face resistance from below, but for the feudal diktat in the party.   I, still seen as an outsider, even after effort to project personal legitimacy in a city of immigrants that is Kuala Lumpur from the fact that I was a Kampong Baru boy, was put into this situation in Wangsa Maju.  Any resentment to my candidacy would have to be submerged underneath a culture of acquiescence to the party’s (read leadership’s) wishes.

Nellie Nani and I today

Nomination Day is a festive day in local politics.  The candidate is treated like a bridegroom being proffered to the community on route to a wedding (or civil registration) ceremony.  The procession to the designated polling headquarters had the candidate accompanied by UMNO division officials and chanting supporters, to impress local electors as to the strength of the party.  The “newness” of my candidacy turn out to be an attraction to the larger Wangsa Maju community, an antidote to the natural tension preexisting among the established party members.  What matters more for the election campaigning to come over the next two weeks was who my opponents would be.   Or whether, in the quite hope of some of my supporters, there would be an opponent at all, especially since the Wangsa Maju Pas Islamic party had withdrawn their candidate after background negotiations with UMNO.   But hope of a free ride (winning without contest) for me had to be put aside because quite on the last hour before close of nominations, Semangat 46 sent Nellie Nani, a business woman, as their candidate.  Just as well, for otherwise UMNO members would have missed the chance to enjoy an election campaign.

The election campaign was for me a political rite of passage.  Three campaign stops on average a night, with introductions and speeches organized by the branches; during the day, visits to day (and night) markets, shaking hands with petty traders and patrons alike; and special gathering with schools, PIBGs and civic groups (including temples associations and silat groups) organized by UMNO and BN component parties. There were as is wont during elections party posters and banners everywhere. And the candidate’s face.  Elyas Omar, the former mayor of KL probably violated some civil service rules but who had a personal interest in the name given the Wangsa Maju constituency, campaigned on my behalf, as did Samad Idris the retired group chief editor of the NST, and especially my USM friend Hashim Hussein Yaacob were tireless guest speakers. Mindef and the army camp and police training personnel helped in their own way.  The whole schedule was tiring but created an atmosphere of festivity and excitement if not for the seriousness of the matter.  I heard via the local party grapevine later that Mahathir himself drove incognito through the area on one of the campaign nights.  At the end of it, I won with a comfortable 29,000 plus majority, and Nellie lost her deposit.

I have no illusions about what being a Wakil Rakyat involved: a commitment to serve the electorate that had put me into Parliament.  It was for me an even higher calling to serve the nation, as that had been my purpose for which I had been trained and prepared for.  To be a part of a brilliant lot of legislators (the sitting Speaker of the Lower House, the Dewan Rakyat, a fine gentleman of the old school, Tun Zahir, said so after a year into the Ninth Parliament) was an exhilarating experience.  I had as close colleagues on the government backbenches the likes of Nungsari, a fellow academic representing Balik Pulau, Husni Hanazlah from Tambun who later went on to become a minister in Najib Tun Razak’s cabinet, and Abu Zahar Ujang, who himself would later become the President of the Senate.

But the flip side of this was the disappointment many in the UMNO Wangsa Maju division, and the many supporters and friends throughout the country, was my not being appointed to the government. Political chatter was rife just before and immediately after the General Elections, that I was going to be made at least a Deputy Minister in the new Mahathir administration, should I win the elections. Indeed, Azman Attar himself had sought to pacify his supporters upset that he was not made head of the new Wangsa Maju division by saying I was to be brought into the government.  The Prime Minister I think had other ideas, so I was to cool it and gain experience as a wakil rakyat in the bachbenches.  I of course have my own plans about what I want to do as wakil rakyat in Wngsa Maju.

Besides having to deal with local complaints about drains and the occasional water supply cuts, and landslides due to the building of the Putra LRT Line through the area, which would eventually involve four stations, my duties include attending branch meetings or local residence associations, and the squatter issues still prevalent in the Setapak/Ayer Kuning area, essentially barrack-like temporary quarters while low-cost housing alternatives are being built by Dewan Bandaraya.  There were also gotong royong and other civic projects, including upgrading suraus as well as festive activities with the Chinese and Indian temples in the constituency, all supported by an annual allocation for BN MPs administered through DBKL.

I unsuccessfully tried to keep these duties as a Member of Parliament and party work separate.  I in fact have a separate party headquarters and the Wakil Rakyat Service Centre, and employed assistants to serve the constituency.   But the demand and pressure from constituents and party members can tear you down, especially since I maintain residence on the other side of town in Bukit Bandaraya, Bangsar.  As time passes, the boundary between the politics of work and the work of politics blurred, sometime get confused.  That was when I realized that I should have accepted the proposal Azman Attar, the wily politician that he was, made to Anwar that he should be made the UMNO division chief and I the wakil rakyat, was on hindsight logical and practical.  But, as everyone knows, there is no logic in politics.  I was to learn about this over the course of the following six years.