As I Was Thinking...

I was just think about the wider implications of the on-going Nazri-Mahathir spat and then I saw the following article in the Malaysian Insider today. It explains why certain UMNO stalwarts are in denial about so many things that are obvious like the BTN racist course content as a prime example. They just cannot afford to concede.

On the flip side, there are others like Nazri (so it seems) in UMNO who accept that nothing is sacrosanct on the Internet; crap will eventually surface. They feel it is better to admit certain past misconducts now and through managing fallout, perhaps regain the trust of the rakyat.

In other words, one group is fearful of opening Pandora's Box while the other accepts that Pandora's Box is already open (and will open wider) and the only thing to do is to manage the consequences to the best advantage of UMNO. Please read:

In Nazri-Dr M spat, a wider struggle

 

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 — The ongoing battle between Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is more than just the explosion of personal animosity between the two antagonists.
On the subject at least of the quarrel between the two men — the controversial Biro Tata Negara (BTN) — Nazri represents the more enlightened part of Umno.

They are the ones who believe the genie is out of the bottle and that the old repressive ways of the old Dr Mahathir administration cannot work anymore.

Nazri said as much this week when he kept repeating the point that there was no point in pretending that BTN courses were not a hotbed of racism.

After all, participants of the course — many of them Malays — have been openly listing down examples of racist propaganda spewed by facilitators of the programme.

On the other hand, those who back Dr Mahathir represent the group that believes the relative openness of the Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi years was a disaster, especially for Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN).

Many of them have pointed to BN's disastrous showing in Elections 2008 as an example.
They argue that the only way for Umno to regain its stature is by beating down any opposition to its policies.

And for a primer on how to do that, there is no better example than the authoritarian style of Dr Mahathir.

Those who back Dr Mahathir believe that the only way to maintain some order for Umno is to ensure the mainstream press blacks out certain news items, such as Nazri's original remark that Dr Mahathir was a "bloody racist".

Umno-owned newspapers did not initially report the spat, but The Star, the country's biggest newspaper owned by Umno's partner MCA, did.

And for reporting on Nazri's original remarks, The Star has now come under attack from pro-Dr Mahathir blogs.The newspaper is being accused by those who back Dr Mahathir as a Chinese-owned newspaper trying to take advantage of Umno's relative weakness.

The blogs and many of the hawks in Umno are also pushing for Nazri to be removed from Cabinet and the party's supreme council.

The friction between the more enlightened leaders in Umno and the conservatives is probably the last thing Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak needs.

Najib is trying to focus his efforts on steering the economy out of trouble. He is banking on a return to robust growth by next year to win back public support.

Rows such as those between Nazri and Dr Mahathir will be significant distractions.

But the BTN issue will be the first of many battles between the more open-minded members and the right wing.

And anecdotal evidence so far suggests that Nazri and his ilk could end up on the losing side more often than not.