出处 ∶星洲日报
原题 ∶The Star:Rock the boat, if need be
作者 ∶再娜安华（ZAINAH ANWAR）
发表日期∶05-04-09
翻译日期∶10-04-09
翻译 ∶张立德
许多大马人刚刚告別卸任的第五任首相，那是黯然的时刻。他是一个充满热诚、要贡献国家的好人，但在面对党內和政府的阻力下，却缺乏魄力和果断去落实改革承诺。
敦阿都拉当初提出『和我一起工作，不是为我工作』（work with me, and not for me）的口號，掳获人心。他誓言巩固民主、消除贪污和实施政策透明化与有效率；承诺成为全民首相，呼吁非政府组织成为政府耳目。这些宣言令厌倦了专制管治手法的国人感到悦耳动听。
他的改革承诺让国阵在2004年大选取得压倒性胜利。但民眾对其改革议程的强大支持很快就沦为失望和愤怒，因其部长、公务员和党员偏离了其改革讯息。他让他们为所欲为，没有一套机制和监督系统来控制状况和导回正轨。他执政团队的杂音让民眾感觉到犹如一艘船，因船长受到各方困扰而漫无目的在航行。
他开启了公共舆论空间，但新闻部和內政部的老主管却没有主意，如何有策略和智慧去应对开放的空间和批评，以及无疆界新媒体、更强大的反对党和更有勇气的选民所带来的挑战。
他应该是改革的主力，带头有效落实其意愿。反之，他不干涉的领导方式让其党和政府內部可以罔顾他的愿景和政策，制定一套完全不同的议程，损害了其政权，最终令人民背弃巫统和国阵。
对伯拉这样一个在种族关係、妇权和民主有著进步愿景，可以展现出党和政府当时改革氛围的人，却被迫提早退位，真是可惜。当他发现必须更具决心去落实他的改革议程时，一切已经太迟。他的党不要他领导了，但歷史会公平评价他的。
伯拉劝告他的继承人不要重蹈他的覆辙──维持原有的那个內阁，被那些无法理解其改革议程或没有魄力去推动改革的旧阁员佔据──这是很好的提醒。为了不要与其前任者敌对，他放弃选贤任能，反之留下旧人。
缺乏激情的推动，改革將无法到位。一个人怕惹麻烦，也无法带来改革。有时候甚至要顛覆，敢於去掉包袱，因为害怕改变的人內心会强烈的抗拒。
大马第六任首相已经就任，並为他的政党提出事先警告：改变，否则就得灭亡。我担心的是，巫统党员在党代表大会上对新领导层的诞生感到兴奋，不是针对纳吉要带来的改变，而是要他回到过去，恢復巫统的旧时光辉──通过政治命令。
民眾仍无法確定纳吉是不是一个可以信任的改革承担者。纳吉本身意识到这一点，他知道在民眾眼中，他的名誉並非无污点的，因此，他很技巧地要求民眾以他的行动来评价他。
他知道没有所谓的蜜月期，必须组织一个適当的內阁，立即將他的改革议程化为具体政策，使巫统上下和他一起奋斗。他必须马上交出具体和明確的成绩，否则，民眾的负面看法会加强，而他要使巫统和人民重新联繫起来，否则人民对其领导的信心將功亏一簣。
The new Prime Minister has to translate his change agenda into concrete public action immediately; change cannot take place without champions with passion to drive it.
For many Malaysians saying silent goodbyes to our fifth Prime Minister, it is a sad moment. For there goes a good man who had the right instincts to do what is best for his country, but who did not have the strength nor the decisiveness needed to deliver on his promises of reform in the face of resistance from within his own party and government.
Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi captured the public imagination when he addressed the nation in Parliament, asking Malaysians to “work with me, and not for me”. He pledged to strengthen democracy, weed out corruption and make governance transparent and accountable. He promised to be Prime Minister of all Malaysians. He called on the NGOs to be the eyes and ears of the government. These pronouncements were all music to a populace tired of the ancien régime autocratic rule.
His promise of change swept Barisan Nasional to an extraordinary electoral victory in 2004. But the overwhelming public support for his change agenda soon turned to frustration and fury when his ministers, his civil servants, and his party apparatchiks went off his change message. He let them run loose on the rakyat, with no mechanism and no monitoring system in place to pull the leash on them and get them to stay on message. The cacophony of divergent voices and messages from his administration led to a public sense of a ship adrift with a captain buffetted by all sides.
He opened up the public space for debate, but the Old Guards in the Information and Home Ministries had no clue how to strategically and intelligently respond to the new openness and counter the criticisms and the challenges posed by the free-for-all new media, a strengthened Opposition and an emboldened electorate.
He should have been the master change agent, providing leadership to effectively execute his message. Instead his laissez-faire leadership style enabled those within his party and his government opposed to his vision and his policies to set a different agenda that undermined his authority and eventually turned the rakyat against Umno and the Barisan Nasional.
It is ironic and a lost opportunity that someone as progressive as Pak Lah in his vision and judgment on race relations, women’s rights, and democracy, who could have brought the party and government success to reflect the changing mood of the times, has instead ended his tenure by being forced into early retirement. By the time he realised that he needed to be more decisive to deliver on his promises of reform, it was too late. His party did not want him at the helm any more. But history will be a kinder judge of his record.
Pak Lah is right to advise his successor not to make the first major mistake he committed – to keep a Cabinet he inherited, dominated by Old School ministers who did not share his change agenda or did not have the energy nor the ideas to deliver the change. Instead of getting the right people with the right skills, he kept the old hands as he did not want to antagonise his predecessor.
Change cannot take place without champions with passion to drive the change agenda. Change cannot take place if one fears rocking the boat. Sometimes one might even need to capsize the boat and lose some crew members because intense resistance will come from those fearful of change.
Now Malaysia’s sixth Prime Minister has taken office with an ominous warning to his party: change or perish. My worry is that the euphoria among the party members at the General Assembly for the new leadership is not for the change that Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak wants to bring, but for him to turn back the clock and bring back Umno’s past glory – through political fiat.
The rakyat outside remains uncertain if Najib will be the bearer of change they can believe in. Najib himself is aware of this for he knows that in the public eye, his reputation is not unblemished. Thus, wisely, he appealed to the public to please judge him by his actions.
He knows there is no honeymoon period for him. He has to get the Cabinet right, he has to translate his change agenda into concrete public action immediately, and bring his party with him on this. He must produce results, tangible and visible, without delay. If not, the negative public perception will only be reinforced and his mission to reconnect Umno with the rakyat and to build public trust in his leadership will be damaged beyond repair.
He has made the right start with his maiden speech, making clear his direction: 1Malaysia, People First, Performance Now. He took immediate action: the release of ISA detainees, the promise to review the ISA, and the lifting of a temporary ban on two party newspapers.
Najib and many of the newly elected Umno leaders do realise the dire straits the party is in and that defeat in the next election is a possible reality. But I do not believe most of the delegates share that sentiment. Those cheers could be for an expected return to the good old days of generous patronage trickling down to the divisions and branches, and autocratic rule to cripple the Opposition and civil society.
Journalists covering the assembly lament how little the delegates picked up on Najib’s or Pak Lah’s speeches calling for change and their criticism of grasping Umno members who have lost touch with the rakyat.
In his closing speech, Najib appealed to the delegates to be the eyes and ears of the rakyat so that Umno can read accurately the pulse of the nation and translate that into policy and action. He directed them to go back to Umno’s beginnings, a party rooted in the grassroots. However, for many of these Umno delegates, the rakyat means them. To listen to the “akar umbi” means the party leadership should listen and respond to the disgruntlement of Umno members for a piece of the pie that has gone to the big boys.
While Najib has proposed some immediate structural changes to reform Umno to make it more democratic and to deal with the scourge of money politics, he was silent on what really makes being an Umno leader such a coveted and lucrative position. It is, for many, a passport to personal wealth accumulation or, at the very least, a better life. Thus the bitter battles to win at all costs, for the investment will bring greater returns. Thus the reason why talented young Malays are blocked by talentless, self-serving branch and divisional leaders from joining the party or rising to the top. Thus the exodus of educated Malays to PAS and PKR, or who opt to be active in civil society instead.
Umno desperately needs fresh young talent to revive the party. But first it has to root out the systemic corruption, rent-seeking behaviour and entrenched patronage within the party. It is this lucrative system that attracts the carpetbaggers to join Umno and to fight tooth and nail to win leadership positions.
In a 2005 party assembly speech critical of bumiputra rent seekers who abused the opportunities given, Pak Lah revealed how the government had been threatened to pump-prime the economy to give the 42,000 Class F contractors, most of whom are Umno members and grassroots leaders, more and more contracts. In 2000 when the government was compelled to allocate projects to each parliamentary constituency to ensure the survival of Class F contractors, it led to even more contractors being registered, demanding even more contracts than the government could ever hand out, he said.
Those familiar with the government’s failure to deal with the migrant labour situation cite the lucrative permits to import workers being in the hands of key figures linked to Umno. Again and again, attempts to effectively control the demand and supply of foreign labour are thwarted because of political interference. The same with taxi permits.
For as long as the government continues to play Santa Claus to keep Umno members happy, there will be no end to money politics and corruption in the party. This is the big running sore that is poisoning Umno. But who within Umno has the courage to really bell the elephant within? Who dares to sink the gravy boat? Obviously, if the new President does not also embark on this big party clean-up, the disconnect between Umno and the rakyat will prolong.
Three million members have become a burden to the party and the economy. The vicious circle of goodies in return for support must end.
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