The crushing defeat of Kuomintang (KMT) in Taiwan after 50 years of political hegemony on the island must have sent jitters through Umno. Umno leaders have reason to worry, as the apparent parallel between Umno and KMT is obvious. Not so much in Umno's longevity (42 years in the governing seat) as in its rampant indulgence in money politics.

One of the major factors that prompted the people to desert KMT was their utter disgust of the ever increasing omnipresence of what the locals call "black gold politics" - amassing of wealth through politics and the massive deployment of such money to manipulate the electoral process.

Not unlike Umno in Malaysia, KMT amassed immense wealth through decades of political hegemony, extending its business tentacles to every aspect of the economic life in the country. In addition, decades of unchallenged political control bred such arrogance of power that many KMT officials were unable to distinguish between KMT and the state, much like Umno leaders, though the latter display an even higher degree of arrogance for lack of effective democratic institutions to restrain them.

In rejecting KMT, the Taiwanese must have gone through many agonising moments, emotionally and intellectually. For 80 percent of the population, KMT is the only ruling party they know of. And that ruling party has transformed what was once a poor and backward island into the present thriving and prosperous economy, right at the forefront of modern technology.

To crown it all, KMT has brought democracy to Taiwan, making Taiwanese society the first to enjoy such privileges in the 5,000-year history of China. Why then should Taiwanese turn against such a great benefactor?

The answer is: the fruits of KMT's success are also the seeds of its downfall. As Taiwanese society progressed rapidly in the economic and educational fields, KMT stagnated and regressed in the moral aspect of its rule.

The rapid expansion of KMT's business empire only heightened the conflicts of interest between party and state, and hastened the spread of corruption. To an increasingly enlightened population in a democracy like Taiwan, such continuation of corruption and arrogance was no longer tolerable.

The people of Taiwan promptly answered the calls for reform by the opposition, and handed KMT a humiliating defeat, with the latter securing only 23 percent of the votes cast in a three-corner fight. The unsinkable KMT sunk in Taiwan. Will the invincible Umno follow suit considering the similarities of both parties?

Before answering that question, one has to understand why Umno has, until lately, been invincible. Umno was embraced by Malays as the sole champion of their race, and the Malays enjoy absolute domination in the polls due to a combination of gerrymandering and numerical superiority.

Hence, as long as Umno played the racial tune, and as long as Malays accepted this tune as their prime consideration in their voting preference, Umno's iron grip on political power remained unbreakable.

As in the case of Taiwan, Malays have progressed by leaps and bounds, in economic and educational fields, thanks to Umno's political struggle. As Malays have become many times more advanced, the priorities of their political struggle were bound to change. Where economic uplifting of the racial group was once the prime and only burning issue that occupied almost their entire political psyche, it is not so today.

Malays were jolted by this reality when the recent Asian economic and financial crisis struck Malaysia. The fragile business empires that were built under Mahathir's brand of crony capitalism could not withstand the test of this international whirlwind, and buckled under tons of bank loans, caused by reckless expansion and spending. Many Malay entrepreneurs were among the worst hit.

The more enlightened Malays realise that the economic ills of Malays today lie not in dispensing with the NEP vigorously enough, but in the failure of Umno to upgrade its ethical and managerial standard.

Far from improving itself to deal with the ever more challenging environment in a fast globalising world, Umno plunged into unprecedented depths of totalitarianism and corruption, bringing the entire country down with it.

The deterioration of the administration of this country was obvious since Barisan Nasional scored its most resounding victory in the 1995 general elections. Much to the misfortune of Malaysians, Mahathir mistook that victory as licence to act as the infallible leader, above the law and fellow human beings.

In his haste to fulfill his dreams of grandeur and greatness, and prodded by greedy cronies for obvious reasons, he threw rational economic planning to the wind and embarked almost simultaneously on numerous grandiose but uneconomical mega projects.

Billions of ringgit of contracts and privatisation projects have been handed out to cronies without open tender. In that fashion, billionaire entrepreneurs were made overnight. As such mega spending was building to a climax just before the Asian crisis, corruption and cronyism became the order of the day. Umno, being the kingpin of the ruling coalition, was right at the core of these activities.

It was in this context that Umno Youth, under the patronage of Anwar, started the battle cry to stamp out corruption and cronyism during the 1998 Umno Conference. But Umno Youth's calls for reforms were smothered, and Anwar was landed in jail.

Umno suffered an unprecedented set back in the 1999 general elections when it lost the support of the majority of the Malay electorate, which was the very bedrock on which Umno was founded.

One would have thought Umno would take this as a serious warning and start soul searching with a view to avoid impending political oblivion. Alas, this was not to be.

Should some Umno members be in doubt over the pessimistic scenario portrayed above, they need only to look at the stream of ugly events that have emanated from the ruling clique since the recent general elections. These events degrade our democratic institutions and further alienate all right thinking Malaysians.

The latest came in the form of an order from Melaka Chief Minister Rustam Ali to punish professionals such as doctors, lawyers, architects, surveyors, valuers, etc for being pro-opposition by terminating their services with the state government. He also ordered the withdrawal of fixed deposits from banks whose staff were found to be pro-opposition.

Other similar acts include:

- the lenient court sentence passed on the former inspector general of police Rahim Noor in contrast with Anwar's six-year sentence. Further, Rahim was released on bail pending his appeal to a higher court, while Anwar was denied bail and has had to languish in jail, pending his appeal;

- the restrictions on Harakah and other pro-opposition publications on technical excuses;

- arrests of prominent opposition leaders on charges under the loosely-worded and all-powerful Sedition Act and the Official Secrets Act;

- the Prime Minister brushing the constitutional provision aside by advising the King to proclaim a parliamentary session even before the new cabinet was sworn in.

These unprecedented acts are violations of the individual's constitutional right to freedom of political association, an abuse of government authority and tantamount to wrongful dismissal. They are also reflections of the inability of Umno leaders to distinguish between state and party, mistaking anti-party as anti-national.

KIM QUEK is a freelance writer who contributes regularly to Harakah .