LETTER TO THE EDITOR.
In “ Scrap the quota system” (NST, Nov 19), Z.A.K. questions the effectiveness of my proposal that all those involved in contests for posts in the UMNO supreme council and their agents take an oath pledging to refrain from money politics (NST, Nov 13).
What I had actually suggested in my letter was that the oath be taken “in the name of Allah”. Unfortunately, the NST left out those 5 words. The unedited version is available on the JUST website www.just-international.org
For most Muslims an oath in the name of God has much greater psychological significance than a simple secular pledge. There is a possibility that it would inhibit them from indulging in a vice that is so despicable from a Quranic perspective.
Z.A.K also argues that money politics emerged after the quota system for nominations to the supreme council was introduced. Though the quota system has exacerbated the situation, there was concern about money politics in UMNO even in the 1981 party election. More than any other single factor, it was the incestuous relationship between business and politics – a consequence of the abuse of the NEP— that germinated money politics in UMNO.
At that early stage, the UMNO leadership should have acted firmly and swiftly against the perpetrators of this abomination. If a few heads had been chopped, it would have sent a strong message to both leaders and members that the party had zero tolerance for money politics. It is true that Dr. Mahathir Mohamad who presided over the party for 22 years— during a time when money politics was getting from bad to worse— often bemoaned the spread of this vice within UMNO and berated the party faithful at their annual general assembly. But action would have spoken louder than words.
If Mahathir and other leaders failed to act, it was partly because political expediency took precedence over political principles. If someone who indulges in money politics is your protégé, the tendency is to close one eye. This is what happened in the 1993 UMNO election when money politics was at its peak.
The situation today has become so bad— according to some sources— that even if the Anti- Corruption Agency (ACA) hauls up some party leaders it is not going to have much impact. This is why the only solution now may be to eliminate altogether the delegate-voting system in the party. As I had noted in my November 13 letter, “ if delegates do not have the power to choose the supreme council, there will be no buying and selling of votes.”
Empowering the ordinary UMNO member by allowing him to choose the leadership through direct voting may well be the only way of restoring the party’s integrity.
Chandra Muzaffar.
Kuala Lumpur.
23 November 2008.