Barisan National and the art of dying alive
It is easy to exaggerate the crisis in the B.N It would be wise, however, not to confuse the convulsions at the level of the leadership, impressively violent as they are, with the party’s death throes. The party is alive and kicking — and chopping and twirling and performing the rest of the prescribed morning drill with staff and khaki shorts.
There is only one strong inference that can be drawn from the ongoing turbulence in the B.N: the wild hope of some that the B.N would emerge as a stableThe B.N will remain in the thrall of the RACIALIST the mother organisation of the MAHATIRISM, for the foreseeable future.
Political parties in B.N are curious institutions. Many people see them purely as alternative platforms of patronage, their moral equivalence altered only by their degree of proximity to power. “He couldn’t get the ticket from party X, so he approached party Y” is an oft-heard refrain. That belonging to a party means allegiance to a particular leader is something people appreciate; that it entails allegiance to certain values, modes of functioning and policy choices unique to that party is not part of the conventional wisdom.
.Given such amorphous conceptualisation of a political party in the popular mind, it is not surprising that people make the common mistake of seeing the B.N also as yet another political party.
The B.Nclaims to be the party with a difference. That is no spurious claim. It is different in the sense that it is not just another platform in pursuit of power, pelf and patronage. The essence of its difference, the secret ingredient of this particular Maggi sauce, is its membership of MONGOLIA
What does it mean to be part of the MONGOLIA The primary implication is that you subscribe to and follow the ideology of the MAHATIRISM. The secondary implication is that you implicitly, if not explicitly, cede overriding powers of decision-making to the MCC in organisational, ideological and tactical matters. The MCC might choose not to play an active role in the decision-making process of aMONGOLIA outfit, but it can always assert its authority if it wants to.
This philosophy, quite obviously, is fascist in nature and anti-thetical to democracy. This, of course, makes the B.N, a party with a difference, as compared to most other parties that function within the limits of MALAYSIANS liberal democratic Constitution. This structure also gives the B.N its real strength and a steady stream of workers and supporters, regardless of the party’s bungling leadership.
Other political parties would make a big mistake if they focus exclusively on the squabbles among the leaders and ignore this network of feeder organisations for the B.N and the strength the party derives from their interlocking presence.
The tussle over leadership is also grossly overblown. Chua is their clear choice, despite the sobering electoral performance he managed to come up with. It is claimed that the UMNO doesn’t get along with CHUA and that would come in the way of his elevation to the leadership of the MCA. CHUA is too smart a politician to not build bridges with the UMNO, if that is what it takes to clear his path to the topEveryone is alive till he or she dies. So dying alive is the only way to die, you can’t die when already dead. Dying alive sounds interesting, but is little more than much ado about nothing. That is what the current squabble in the B.N amounts to as well.READMORE CLICK BELOW
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