'Eunuchs', and, Malaysia's, non-sectarian, politics

UPDATED VERSION. Two Penangites, Dr Neil Khor Jin Keong and Khoo Kay Peng, launched their co-authored book in Penang yesterday amidst looming threats of court actions (picture below courtesy Malaysiakini).

The book, titled Non-Sectarian Politics in Malaysia: The Case of Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, carries a foreword by Dato' Dr Toh Kin Woon, a party loyalist regarded as the "Conscience of Parti Gerakan", who writes:

[...] the book describes how Gerakan has not been consistent in following a truly non-racial Malaysian line. It often vacillates, as the book points out, from the racial to the non-racial and back. [...]

There are many factors contributing to the party's recent electoral performance. As the book makes clear, these included the party's own internal weaknesses which have been a long time accumulating. But the party's descent into "eunuch politics" or the politics of patronage is merely a symptom of a wider BN problem, especially in the dominant United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). History has shown that any coalition dominated by too powerful a partner suffers electorally. Gerakan, like other BN component parties, had to shoulder the electorates' rejection of UMNO.

All these, the labels of 'eunuch politics' not withstanding, require further explanation to enable us gain a contextual point of wisdom, albeit with the benefit of hindsight.

BLOGROLL:
- Anil Netto: Here, here and here
- Romerz The Middle Ground: Here
- VeonStead: Here

I was told there were two consecutive applications applied at the Penang High Court yesterday to prevent the book from being launched. However, both applications, believed to have been applied by a Gerakan state-seat candidate vanquished in the GE2008, were set aside.

It couldn't have come at a much worse time for Koh Tsu Koon as he readies himself to be elected as the party's de jure president after taking the reign in a transitional capacity from Dr Lim Keng Yaik in 2007.

This is largely because Koh has postured to reinvent Gerakan from the "heart" ( 从心开始 ), after having failed in achieving the objective of its GE2008 election slogan, that was to "keep reinventing" Gerakan within BN. Koh's power base in Penang, after having served 18 years as the Chief Minister, was rudely annihilated in the March 8 political tsunami. BN lost 29 out of 40 state seats contested. The only opposition party members in the state assembly are solely from Umno.

'Not beyond three generations'

The book, divided in five chapters and could be finished over a night's reading, narrates the chronological sequences during which Gerakan rose to capture and installed the Penang state government after the bloodshed of 1969 subsequent to the making of Malaysia; the Tun Lim Chong Eu era dating from the early years of Gerakan (1968-72) and succumbing to Barisan Nasional. It also traces how Penang was governed during the tumultuous phases of party leadership under Chong Eu, Keng Yaik and Tsu Koon.

Reading it in one breath, it gives you the eerie feel that Gerakan may have yet fallen under the superstitious Chinese belief that a family trade seldom gos beyond three generations: The grandfather forms it, the son spends it away, and the grandson screws it up all together.

It's premature to determine if Tsu Koon is the grandson in the Chinese superstition, though the rumbling within party insiders is clear and present.

While some Gerakan leaders had blamed Umno, and Umno politics, for being the main culprit that had caused the clean-cut uprooting of the party that ruled the state for nearly four decades, from 1969 through 2008, other insiders are obviously less forgiving.

'Eunuch Politics'

For example, Dr Hsu Dar Ren, a party loyalist active in the Klang Valley and a prolific blogger, claims that Gerakan has been cast under the dictatorial power of the party president, starting from the last lap of Keng Yaik's leadership, and whichever hopefuls who aspire for upward mobility in the party will have to suck up to him, seek refuge in his patronage and by so doing, make themselves divisive power brokers within the party.

Dr Hsu clearly despises these power brokers as he believes they control and manage the party on behalf of the party president. He calls this "eunuch politics", drawing parallels between the Gerakan power brokers and the eunuch bureaucrats of Ming China (Khor & Khoo: Page 139).

However, the juiciest part of the book lies in Chapter 5, where co-author Khoo spilled the beans on the party intrigues during the post-Keng Yaik years of 2007/2008. It's strongly speculated that that was the prime reason for the attempts to disrupt the launch of the book yesterday.

Khoo was attributed in the book (Page 186) as the former executive director of SEDAR Institute, "a think tank linked to (and headquartered at) Parti Gerakan". What was carried in Chapter 5: 'The Reckoning: 2008 General Elections' quoting Khoo as the source, is never insipid about the intra-party forces that caused the near demise that Gerakan self-inflicted during GE2008.

According to Khoo, the indecisiveness displayed by Tsu Koon over the choice of the succeeding Chief Minister of Penang, and back-stabbing on the person of early favourite, party secretary-general Chia Kwang Chye, blaming his lack of proficiency in the Chinese language, had been the bellwether for the political quagmire that permeated within the party, perhaps till today. Quote:

It was actually more than just a lack of proficiency in Chinese which disqualified Chia as a Chief Minister designate. Chia confided in Khoo Kay Peng, the Executive Director of SEDAR Institute (Gerakan's think tank), that Tsu Koon did not regard him highly. At a meeting more than a year before the general elections, Tsu Koon asked Kay Peng, at a hotel near the Putrajaya to speak to Chia on this matter. Tsu Koon had wanted Kay Peng to convey his request to Chia to allow Dr Teng Hock Nan to succeed him for a term before passing the mantle over to him.

For those who haven't yet bought the book, let me quote the relevant parts in pages 143 - 145.

Chia's reluctance to make way for Dr Teng explains Tsu Koon's indecisiveness in naming his successor. After parliament was dissolved, Tsu Koon insisted That Dr Teng should succeed him. Tsu Koon then convinced Keng Yaik that Dr Teng was the right candidate. At a Central Working Committee meeting, Keng Yaik dropped a bombshell on the need for the next Chief Minister to be proficient in Chinese, by quoting Dr Lim Chong Eu's definition of multilingualism as a key success factor of a state leader. Ironically, both Keng Yaik and Chong Eu were English-educated.