opinion
The news that three veteran mainstream journalists had been sacked came as a total surprise even to those who follow the developments and Byzantine intrigues of the establishment.The New Straits Times (formerly Straits Times ) has been the mouthpiece of the powers that be - not very unlike the Pravda in the former Soviet Union or the People's Daily in communist China - since the heyday of British colonialism and imperialism in Malaya.
The name of the paper itself is always paradoxically reminiscent of the British crown colonies of the Strait Settlements of Penang, Malacca and Singapore.
One of those who has been sacked, former NST editorial advisor Samad Ismail, is no ordinary or mediocre soul either. A founder of the Lee Kuan Yew's People's Action Party in Singapore in November 1954, Samad and his left-wing group later considered Lee's faction to be too right-wing and pro-Western, and broke away to form the Singapore Socialist Front, or Barisan Sosialis.
For that, Samad was once openly accused by his opponents in Singapore as a card-carrying member of the Communist Party of Malaya. Samad was also once detained without trial by the British colonial authorities in the early 1950s for this.
Later on, Samad came to Malaysia and found some kind of political protection and patronage in the circle of the second prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein. Samad is known for his advisory skills and vast knowledge of Singaporean politics and its political personalities, including Lee Kuan Yew.
Radical youth
However, in the 1970s, Samad was again detained without trial under the Internal Security Act in Malaysia, together with Abdullah Ahmad, who is the new editor-in-chief of the New Straits Times . Both Samad Ismail and Abdullah Ahmad were alleged, without proof, to be either 'communists' or 'communist sympathisers'.
Abdullah Ahmad, who is a former deputy minister and former political secretary of Tun Razak, was then said to be "very close to the Soviet Union". Later on, in early 1980s, a political secretary of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Sidiq Ghouse, was also detained under the ISA for allegedly being 'a Soviet spy'.
According to one hypothesis advanced by another former ISA detainee, Kassim Ahmad, in his book entitled The Second University , the detentions were orchestrated by the 'right-wing' in Umno in an attempt to frustrate the political ascension of Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his more 'progressive' group of nationalists.
In the 1940s, Mahathir, as a radical youth, joined a left-wing organisation named Saberkas in Kedah which advocated, among others, 'the nationalisation of industries' and the 'creation of an independent and socialist Malaya'.
After Dr Mahathir came to power, all the detainees were released. Abdullah Ahmad was also back in Umno and elected as a member of parliament for Kok Lanas in Kelantan. Abdullah Ahmad made another name for himself in 1986 when he delivered a speech at a function in Singapore, asserting that the paramount and national principle of governing Malaysia is the ideology of Ketuanan Melayu or the 'Malay Supremacy' of Umno.
He was not only attacked by non-Umno parties and the non-Malay communities, but possibly within Umno itself for this continental and Machiavellian bluntness in the 20th century tropical and maritime Malay archipelago.
Later, Abdullah Ahmad was assigned by the government of Mahathir to be a representative to the United Nations. In recent years, he has frequently written long articles and short columns in the New Straits Times and Utusan Malaysia , two major dailies controlled and directed by Umno.
Political fringe
Comparing their writings, an observer of Umno politics in a major Chinese-language media in Malaysia likes to contrast the introvert personality of the stoic Samad Ismail with the 'intellectual exhibitionism' of Abdullah Ahmad who like to borrow phrases from the magnum opus of 16th century Italian diplomat and bureaucrat, Niccolo Machiavelli, such as "to be loved or feared?".
Despite the ideological and political backgrounds of some personalities in the New Straits Times , some observers opine that the sackings may just be due to financial reasons. The NST with a declining circulation and credibility, just simply cannot afford anymore to hire editorial advisers or consultants who only work two or three hours a day for a few thousand ringgit a month.
Another hypothesis that attempts to explain the sackings is that it has to do with Abdullah Ahmad, the new editor-in-chief, trying to consolidate his position as the only grand old and experienced man in the group. This hypothesis is closely related to another one that points to the possibility of internal squabbles among Mahathir's old advisers, appointed or self-styled, over the right to advocate certain policy options or political strategies.
With Umno courtiers in a state of flux, one certainty seems to be that, henceforth, readers of the New Straits Times should now expect to read more frequently, longer pieces from its editor-in-chief, and be served more 'news' on Malaysian politics written and reported by right-wingers on the political fringe in Washington DC.
(For more dossiers on the radical past of Dr Mahathir and other members of the Malaysian political elites, read the next issue of Analysis Malaysia : 'Student Activism in Malaysia: From Mahathir to Jonah'.)
JAMES WONG WING ON, chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia , is a former Member of Parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily. He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While in Sin Chew , he and a team of journalists won the top awards of Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) for 1998 and 1999.
