By Raja Petra Kamarudin

These two PKR men are now missing. They have been missing since the last four days and no one knows where they are. But they are not really missing as such. They are safely in the hands of Umno. And Umno wants them to agree to a deal.

Buy them, or kill them! That is the theme for the Year of the Ox. And that is the theme Umno lives by. And if you live by the sword, so will it be that way you die, by the sword. Make no bones about it. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.

I remember the story told to me 20 years ago by an Umno stalwart. A certain one-time Menteri Besar of a certain state was on his deathbed. Friends and relatives read his last rites by his bedside, basically reading the Surah Yassin for he who is about to die.

But he would not die. He lingered on and on, not wanting to die and yet barely alive. His mouth would move when spoon-fed with soup. Yes, he who lived a life of makan suap (corruption) was being makan suap (spoon-fed) the last days of his life here on earth.

It soon became very tiring. Here was a man supposed to die whom they were reading his last rites. But he would not go away. He stayed on, neither alive nor dead. How to make him leave?

They called in a religious man, a man most respected by the Muslim community. The religious man told the family to open the safe and take out some of the millions stashed away in it. This was no time for discussion or debate. They did as they were told.

The religious man took out handfuls of cash from the safe and stuffed them into a pillowcase. The pillowcase, now full and bursting at its seams, was handed to the man who would not die, the man lying on his deathbed the last one week, he who was once the all-powerful and most corrupted Menteri Besar of this extremely rich state, the frail and very sick man who was not alive yet would not die.

The once very powerful and extremely rich man hugged his pillowcase stuffed with money, broke into a smile, gave a deep sigh, and closed his eyes and breathed his last breath. He was now gone from this world and entered the next.

Yes, this one-time Menteri Besar lived for money. He would only die with his money gripped tightly in his arms. He lived by the sword. He died by the sword. Money was his ‘God’. From money he came, to money he returned. Not dust to dust and ashes to ashes, but cash to cash. And his heaven was the printing press where they print money. That is where he resides in his ‘next world’.

Umno is not a political party. No doubt that is what it once was. But, that, it no longer is. Umno is now a trading house. It is a business. It is the new-age East India Company of Malaya or the Noble House of Hong Kong. It is what the old British companies used to do 200 years ago in this region.

The old Colonial masters used to buy and sell power. And to buy and sell power you need to buy and sell people. And people who could not be bought and sold would be incarcerated or killed. That is the Colonial game. That is the way the British played the power game. But the British are no longer around. They are no longer Malaya’s Colonial masters. We have a new Colonial master. And that Colonial master is called Umno.

I too was offered a deal. Work for the incoming regime, those who will be the new Colonial masters in March 2009, and become filthy rich. To resist is futile. Power can’t be resisted. To resist would mean to incur the wrath of the new masters who will be so in March 2009.

The alternative would be imprisonment. The two choices are simple: work for the powers-that-be and become rich or go to jail. I chose jail. So, two weeks later, on 12 September 2008, they came to my house and sent me to the Kamunting Detention Centre.

But I had good lawyers. And my lawyers did something never before done in the almost 50 years history of the Internal Security Act. They managed to convince the court that my detention was illegal and that I should not be in Kamunting but instead should be sent home. And the judge in the Shah Alam High Court agreed. So he sent me home.

The government is now appealing the Shah Alam High Court decision. They want the Federal Court in Putrajaya to declare that the Shah Alam High Court judge erred and that I should not have been released. This is the final stage of my fight. If they win, I get sent back to Kamunting. There is no further recourse. There is no higher court for me to continue my fight. The Federal Court is the last stop. It is the court of the last resort. I either remain free or I get detained indefinitely.

I asked for seven judges — at the very least, five. The Federal Court has refused my application. My fate now lies in the hands of only three judges. Seven judges would have been safer. Five would not have been too bad. With only three judges my chances are slimmer. And three men are going to decide whether I continue sleeping in my comfortable bedroom the next few years, until the day I die, or I get to spend my last days in a hellhole.

I could have taken the money. I could have enjoyed the remaining years of my life in comfort. Now, I face the risk of spending my final days as the life of a detainee. But that is how Umno works. They try to buy you. And if they can’t buy you, they kill you. And if killing is not an option, they at least incarcerate you. That is the only game they know how to play.

When Pakatan Rakyat formed the Perak and Selangor state governments soon after 8 March 2008, Umno quickly offered PAS a deal. If PAS was prepared to form a coalition with Umno in Perak and Selangor, they agreed to allow PAS to become the Menteri Besar of these two states. As a sweetener, Umno also agreed that the Islamic law of Hudud be implemented in Perak and Selangor. Umno will give PAS its Hudud that it seeks.

It was a sweet deal. Not only will PAS be running Perak and Selangor and will hold the post of the Chief Operation Officers of these two states, but PAS will also realise its dream of seeing Hudud as the law of the land where it had failed in Kelantan 20 years ago and Terengganu ten years ago.

Sweet deal as it may be, PAS said no. Realising its dream and being in charge is one thing, but they also have to consider their loyalty to their partners, PKR and DAP. They will not betray their partners in Pakatan Rakyat for any amount of money. So PAS said no.

Umno then worked on DAP since PAS was no longer a possibility. The offer was RM10 million for each DAP man who was prepared to cross over. The DAP men and women all declined the extremely attractive offer. RM10 million is a nice figure. That kind of money will go a long way. But there is more to life than money. And no DAP man and woman took the offer.

Okay, buying Perak and Selangor State Assemblymen and women from Pakatan Rakyat is not possible. No one is for sale. So, if you can’t buy them, then kill them. And Umno got a certain MIC man who married his boss’s wife after sleeping with her whenever the boss was out of town to do what he is most good at. They wanted PKR men fixed up.

That was easy. He is an expert at fixing up people. He fixed up his boss. He fixed up his boss’s wife who is now his wife. He can fix up PKR men easily enough. He asked to meet two PKR men. He then arranged for his driver to carry a bagful of money to the appointed meeting place with instructions to drop the bag under the table unseen and unnoticed. He did just as he was told.

No sooner had the bagful of money hit the ground when the Anti-Corruption Agency officers rushed in, picked up the bag, and arrested the two PKR men on allegations of corruption. They did not know what hit them. They did not even realise the bagful of money under the table.

These two PKR men are now missing. They have been missing since the last four days and no one knows where they are. But they are not really missing as such. They are safely in the hands of Umno. And Umno wants them to agree to a deal. Accept RM10 million each and cross over to Umno or else go to jail on corruption charges — the same deal they offered me and which I declined and which resulted in my detention under the Internal Security Act on 12 September 2008.

The day the two PKR men were picked up and kept under ‘protective custody’, one Umno State Assemblyman crossed over to PKR. That spoilt the whole plan. They needed just two PKR State Assemblymen to bring down the Pakatan Rakyat state government in Perak. Now, with their own Umno man crossing over to PKR, two will no longer be possible. They now need three.

They offered the ex-Umno, now-PKR State Assemblyman the post of Menteri Besar. If he crosses back to Umno and Barisan Nasional grabs the state, he will be made the new Menteri Besar. They need him back or else it would be pointless to blackmail the two PKR State Assemblymen now facing the prospects of jail. Even if they took the RM10 million in exchange for jail, Umno would still not be the government in Perak. They are still one State Assemblyman short.

What irony. Even as they kidnap two PKR State Assemblymen and put a sword at their throats, an Umno State Assemblyman crosses over to thwart their plan. They ‘gently persuade’ the ex-Umno man in their efforts to get him to cross back to Umno. “Altantuya was killed and Bala has disappeared,’ they told him. They are ‘worried’ something may also happen to him if he does not cross back to Umno.

Yes, Umno is in the power business. They buy and sell power. They also buy and sell people in their effort to attain or maintain power. But even as they hatch their evil plots, their own people cross over to the other side. And that caught them with their pants down. Those who live by the sword die by the sword. And that is what happened to Umno in Perak.

Meanwhile, as they try their best to get back Perak through foul means, in other places they run the risk of losing power. In Negeri Sembilan, all Pakatan Rakyat needs are three state seats to oust Barisan Nasional from the state. Umno is watching that state closely lest three Barisan Nasional State Assemblymen cross over to Pakatan Rakyat to help them form the new Negeri Sembilan state government. And Negeri Sembilan is Khairy Jamaluddin’s state, the state he hopes he will one day become Menteri Besar of before he journeys to Putrajaya to take the seat as Prime Minister of Malaysia some time after 2020.

But Khairy no longer has time to worry about Negeri Sembilan. Negeri Sembilan is something in the future. Negeri Sembilan can wait. Khairy has more immediate problems to worry about.

Khairy is no longer in the lead for Umno Youth Leader. Khir Toyo is now in the lead. Of course, it has cost Khir Toyo a colossal amount of money. He has thus far spent hundreds of millions to ensure that he is the hot favourite for Umno Youth Leader. But it is money well spent, as far as he is concerned. After all, it is not his money. It is not money he made pulling out teeth as a dentist. It is money he stole all those years he was the Menteri Besar of Selangor.

Word is out that in April 2009, as soon as Abdullah Ahmad Badawi hands the Prime Ministership to Najib Tun Razak, Khairy will be dead and buried. And Khairy too knows this. But what can he do? He is going to die a day earlier to Pak Lah’s death. He will not be attending Pak Lah’s funeral. Pak Lah will be attending his. This, Najib will see to it.

In the recent Umno Supreme Council meeting, an anti-Pak Lah demonstration was organised in front of the Umno headquarters in the PWTC. It was made to appear like it was organised by NGOs. But the hidden hand of Najib was at work.

Najib suspects that Pak Lah might not hand over the chair to him in March 2009 after all. And the message he wants to send Pak Lah is that he must let go in March and not a day beyond that. So the anti-Pak Lah demonstration was organised to drive this point home.

Many of Pak Lah’s right-hand men are now facing corruption charges. According to the Umno Disciplinary Board, there are 900 cases of ‘money politics’ — meaning corruption. But they are pursuing only a handful. And these ‘handfuls’ are those aligned to Pak Lah.

They want Pak Lah’s men all out of action before March 2009. Then, come March 2009, Pak Lah will be all alone and isolated. Not only his key men, even Khairy Jamaluddin must be brought down. That would be the only way to ensure that Pak Lah will really go in March 2009 as planned. One Umno man detained for ‘corruption’ alleges that they tortured him and forced him to implicate Khairy as the man behind the move to buy votes.

So, people like Norza Zakaria, Ali Rustam, Azeez Rahman, and the man with two Muhammads in his name, all have their hands full, as does Khairy. They are all fighting their own little battles to stay out of jail. They have no time to worry about Pak Lah. Their own survival is at stake. They are now focused on saving their own necks, leaving Pak Lah to sort out his own problems.

Yes, Umno moves with such brutality. Become rich or go to jail. Retire in comfort or behind the high walls of prisons and detention centres. That is the modus operandi for Umno. They take no prisoners. They kill on the battlefield. It worked for the British Colonialists 200 years ago. It still works for Umno today. But those who live by the sword die by the sword. And Umno is going to discover this soon the hard way.

Meanwhile, watch as those who once walked in the corridors of power fall, one by one. There will be many bodies. You will not see any wounded. It is either you are with us or you are dead meat. There is nothing in between. Who are going to become the victors and who will be those vanquished? No one knows at this stage. But Pak Lah might still stay on beyond March 2009. He has no choice. With the stakes too high and with the ‘winner takes all and loser losses all’ game that Umno is playing, there can only be one left standing at the end of the match.