Sociology of Organization, Barisan Nasional

This is the second part of my research paper with the first one being the proposal paper.

One of the comments I received from Professor Tan - to improve in my referencing.

I got an A- for this paper.

HS205: Organization and Organizational Change
Barisan Nasional
Nur Rashidah Binte Amren

Introduction

Recently, newspapers have been covering issues on various politicians in different countries struggling and competing with each other for power. It seems that power is the only thing that matter to these people. The question is; what is power? Generally, people will define power as the ability to control others. Sociologically, there are deeper meanings and different approaches to understand power. Hence, I will be discussing the sociological concept of power (Topic Two: Power and Hierarchy) and use Barisan Nasional (BN), the ruling coalition in Malaysia as my subject of analysis.

Multi-Dimensional Power – Structural Power

BN is composed of three race-based parties namely United Malays National Organization (UMNO), Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC). Each party represents the interests of its people and ideally, all the parties have equal power in the parliament. As compared to the opposition parties, BN acquired many votes during its early years because the people favoured a united multi-racial and communal party over a single racial party. However, over the years, the Malays dominate in the decision-making processes (Weiss, 2006). The incorporation of MCA and MIC become symbolic and its main purpose is to use them to get the minorities' supports and votes during elections. Until recently, such arrangements go unchallenged. However, after the 2008 General Election, people's unhappiness and anger towards BN are expressed more openly and aggressively.

Usually, power is seen as a relationship between a subordinate and a superior only, such as between a janitor and his supervisor. Sociologically, there are multi-dimensional power namely, hierarchical power and structural power. The effect imposed by the latter is usually more subtle than the former. One of the reasons why the minorities do not go against BN for years, especially during Tun Dr. Mahathir's regime, is because they are made to think that their representative parties have equal or at least some degree of power in BN. Since, UMNO, MCA and MIC are BN parties; they are supposed to have equal status. However, although these parties are not stratified hierarchically and thus, devoid of hierarchical power (which can be detected more readily by the public), structural power still come into play. Structural power arises due to the division of labour. UMNO, which represents the majority usually have a final say in the parliament since they are – after all – is representing the Malays and the indigenous majority. Power is exercised indirectly so as to maintain the ideology that BN parties are treated equally. For example, MCA is allowed to introduce new leaders to the masses to win elections. The voters might then think that MCA is exercising the same political freedom as UMNO’s in determining its future and happy that BN keeps its words of equity regardless of race. However, little do they know that UMNO still does screen the potential candidates so as to avoid permitting assertive leaders in UMNO’s coalition partner who dare to challenge the existing structural power in BN (Vasil, 1971; Weiss, 2006).

When anger is bottled up, it will explode sooner or later. Although the practice of power structurally in BN is not as obvious as should BN practices hierarchical power, people can still sense the discrimination. The only difference is that protests from the minorities would have happened much earlier with hierarchical power. Structural power, on the other hand, enables UMNO to engage in power secretly and hides, to a certain extent, the discriminatory practices that are happening in the parliament (Kanter, 1979). Thus, the minorities will start protesting only when too much worms come spilling out of the can.

Major Types of Power

Malaysia was led for 22 years by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad during his term as Malaysia's Prime Minister. He is regarded as “a man who wanted and is willing to influence events rather than to be a circumstantial reactor” (Ho, 2001: 1). Tun Mahathir's administration saw a transformation in the Prime Minister's office where power was being centralized in there. A term was coined to describe it – Ministerial Supremacy. Being the prime minister then, Tun Mahathir had power concentrated in his hand. His administration allowed cronyism where Malay corporations were favoured over other racial groups' corporations. Privatisation projects were based on political ties and nepotism rather than via open tender. When Anwar Ibrahim, his once loyal supporter, started to criticize his administration, he laid Anwar off as his Deputy Prime Minister and even accused him of performing sodomy. Anwar Ibrahim was jailed in 1998. Although people has began to speculate about Tun Mahathir abusing power during his long-tenure as Malaysia Prime Minister, the speculation got worse only after he stepped down from his post as the longest serving Malaysia Prime Minister.

Recently, he is also known not to be in good term with his successor, Dato' Seri Abdullah Badawi who is seen as someone too passive and incapable of heading BN and Malaysia. Tun Mahathir's personal attacks on Abdullah cause some discomfort in a few prominent figures in the parliament, notably, the International Trade and Industry Minister, Rafidah Aziz. For Rafidah, she worries that Mahathir's attacks would eventually lead to his own destruction. Any wrong moves by Tun Mahathir could cause all his past misdeeds to be exposed such as abusing the power he had (for example, creating instant millionaires and maligning others for his own benefits) when he was the Prime Minister (Sani, 2008).

Other than the common notion about power which tend to relate it to something coercive and legitimate, sociologically, there are various major types of power. These are reward power, the ability to reward others; coercive power, the ability to mete out punishments to offenders; legitimate power, power situated in a particular position; referent power, being identified with by people and expert power, the ability to use power against the people who need a person's expertise. By understanding different types of power a person can exercise, we can evaluate how strong Tun Mahathir was. By awarding contracts worth millions of ringgits to his social networks (reward power), manipulating facts so as to have an enemy convicted of sodomy (coercive power), ruling Malaysia as its prime minister for 22 years (legitimate power), having people idolizing him and having thousands of fans in Facebook (referent power) and knowing how to lead Malaysia to a more prosperous road by creating many effective national policies (expert power) make Tun Mahathir an almost formidable figure. He has all the power and by acknowledging this, we can understand why Tun Mahathir managed to run Malaysia effectively. A person who has only one of the above stated powers is definitely a no match to a person who has all major types of power, like Tun Mahathir.

As for the consequences, Tun Mahathir received an utmost respect from his people because they realized how powerful Tun Mahathir was. With a pragmatic and powerful leader at the realm, Malaysians could be assured that they were in good hands and hence, did not interfere much in the political section. As the result, Tun Mahathir could further exercise his power unchallenged to lead Malaysia forward.

Powerlessness

New Economic Policy (NEP) was introduced in the 1970s. Its aims are to firstly, reduce in both urban and rural poverty for all Malaysians regardless of race. Secondly, it is to reduce racial economic imbalances in terms of income, employment and wealth (Faaland, Parkinson and Saniman, 1990). When NEP was first introduced, the Malays were economically backward as compared to other racial groups. Among the two main aims of NEP, it is the latter that stirs unhappiness among the Malaysians, particularly the minorities. Malays are given priority to governmental job employments and given various subsidies to increase the standard of living of the Malays. It is even enacted in the law not to question the so-called sensitive issues in parliament such as the Malays rights, Islam and anything that has to do with Malay's special treatments.

Normally, people associate the idea of powerlessness with being submissive and passive. However, sociological concept on powerlessness will prove otherwise. Those who perceive themselves as powerless are the ones who tend to use more punishing and coercive forms of influence (Kanter, 1979) upon others. The Malays, who were economically powerless, did not resign their poverty to fate nor did they ask for sympathy from others to improve their financial situation. In fact, since they form the majority, they use their numbers and their position as the bumiputras (sons of the soils) to enact rules which are indirectly coercive in order to improve and maintain their economic and political positions in Malaysia. It is coercive in a sense that the minorities (the Chinese and the Indians) are not given equal rights or status in various public policies. Sociologically, we can understand why the Malays act and defend aggressively about their rights. In fact, there was uproar from the Malay community when the new Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng announced his plan to abolish NEP. Historically, the Malays were weak and powerless. The introduction on NEP has assured them that their Malay rights are being preserved. Although there are many Malays who live in the rural areas who do not enjoy such benefits, the psychological effect which NEP brings to the Malays make it essential for NEP to be retained.

Law of Political Entropy

UMNO division chief Datuk Ahmad Ismail who made an irresponsible remark during the Permatang Pauh by-election speech had stirred severe unhappiness among the Chinese community. He questioned whether the Chinese should deserve equal rights from Malaysia since they are squatters. He was eventually suspended from UMNO but he did not show any sign of being remorseful. Gerakan (an UMNO ally) president Kok Tsu Koon called Datuk Ahmad's action as making their efforts to counteract negative images of BN portrayed by the opposition parties useless. Since citizens have started questioning BN's credibility, it is obviously silly to make such careless remarks which could further deteriorate the situation.

The irrational act of Datuk Ahmad is weird to some people. In sociology, there is a term to explain why he is behaving that way – Law of Political Entropy. Datuk Ahmad was desperate to gain power in that election and in his eagerness to win the Permatang Pauh by-election, he put away rationality. His aim was to win the election and nothing else matters. Hence, when he was interviewed on 10 September 2008 on his remark, he did not feel even a slightest degree of regret or shame because when politics is introduced, rationality is hard to restore.
As the consequence, Datuk Ahmad has made himself foolish and thus, he lost respects from others due to his irrational behaviour. Secondly, irrational acts can only make matter worse and in this case, his remarks further heightened racial tensions in Malaysia.

Critical Role of Legitimacy

Power is contestable and highly sought after. Time and money are invested in order to gain it. In Malaysia, there are continuous competitions for power between Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), Democratic Action Party (DAP), Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and BN. Due to the differing views on the future of Malaysia and each party claiming to be able to represent the whole society regardless of race fairly, many rallies are held. Monies are thrown in for campaigns and time is wasted.

Sociologically, it is important for power to be converted into authority. Monies, energy and time spent on rallies could be channelled to more useful projects. This is possible if only power is placed into legitimate authority. BN, whose legitimate authority was once unquestioned, led Malaysia to a greater height since resources were not spent to fight for power. Thus, they could concentrate on building Malaysia up and when they were successful, their authority was enhanced. Thus, legitimate authority is essential in ensuring smooth and efficient running of a corporation.

However, as mentioned above, different parties now are contending for power. To gain support and to disseminate their visions and future plans for Malaysia, they hold rallies. The audiences are none other than workers. So, when these workers stop their job activities to hear the rallies, national workforce productivity will decline and this will affect Malaysia’s overall economy.

References

Books
Faaland, J. , Parkinson, J. R. & Saniman, R. (1990). Growth and Ethnic Inequality: Malaysia's New Economic Policy. 38 King Street, London: C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd.
Ho, K. L. & Chin, J. (2001). Mahathir's Administration: Performance and Crisis in Governance. Singapore: Times Books International.
Sani, R. A. (2008). Failed Nation? Concerns Of A Malaysian Nationalist. Petaling Jaya, Selangor: Strategic Information and Research Development Centre.
Weiss, M. L. (2006). Protest and Possibilities. Civil Society and Coalitions For Political Change in Malaysia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Ahmad, A. K. , Mansor, N. & Ahmad, A. S. (2003). The Malaysian Bureaucracy. Four Decades of Development. Petaling Jaya, Selangor: Prentice Hall.
Tong, C. K. (2006). 'The Chinese in Contemporary Malaysia', in Lian K. F. Ed. Race, Ethnicity and the State in Malaysia and Singapore. Lieden: Brill, pp. 95 – 119.

Newspapers
Hassan, H. (2008, September 11). UMNO Man and that 'Immigrants' Remark Suspended. The Stratis Times (Singapore), pp A3.

Newspaper Article in an Electronic Database (Lexis Nexis Academic)
Hong, C. (2008, September 4). BN's Chinese parties in dilemma; They face pressure by angry voters to reform, which may include leaving ruling coalition. The Straits Times (Singapore). Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
Vasudevan, V. (2008, September 3). Najib apologises for UMNO. New Straits Times (Malaysia). Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
Kuppusamy, B. (2008, September 3). Chinese furious at Malay calling them squatters; PM urged to sack ally who asked if immigrants deserve same rights. South China Morning Post. Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
Kesavapany, K. (2008, September 3). Anwar: A third alternative? The Straits Times (Singapore). Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
Bakar, Z. A. (2008, August 28). Hard to ignore calls for reforms. New Straits Times (Malaysia). Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
Ng, E. & Mahmood, M. (2008, August 13). PM slams Khalid call to open UiTM to non-Bumis. New Straits Times (Malaysia). Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
Atan, H. (2008, April 30). Nazir: Need to review NEP. New Straits Times (Malaysia). Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
Chow, K. H. (2008, March 14). Malay jitters over opposition plan to end NEP; Analysts suggest a more moderate stance to alleviate Malays' concerns. The Straits Times (Singapore). Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
Hong, C. (2008, August 31). Abdullah's Merdeka Day Pledge. The Straits Times (Singapore). Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
Don't fear telling the truth, PM advises media. (2008, September 4). New Straits Times (Malaysia), local pp 2. Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
NEP vital, says UMNO Youth chief. (2008, March 14). New Straits Times (Malaysia), local pp 6. Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
What is the NEP? (2008, March 13). The Straits Times (Singapore), Asia – Malaysia. Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
Learning the hard way. (2008, March 17). New Straits Times (Malaysia), local pp 22. Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.