Kill the chicken to warn the monkeys

The recent racist remark by a top aide to the Prime Minister may be a signal that all is not well in the dominant party.

A general in the field, no matter how brilliant he is, cannot win battles on his own. He needs to depend on his staff to plan, his subordinates to execute his orders, and most importantly, his foot soldiers to fight his war the way he wants it.

He can be as brilliant as Rommel, deemed one of the best tacticians in the Second World War, but without the support from the people around him, he will never be able to execute his war plans .

A prime minister likewise cannot transform his ideas into actions without the support of his staff and his ministry officials at all levels.

The Prime Minister may be very sincere in wanting to transform the whole political landscape with his 1Malaysia idea, but without the support of the people around him and the cooperation of the civil service, it would be like a general leading an army of discontented and disagreeing soldiers, each wanting to fight his own way.. Worse, this army may have  people bent on undermining the transformation plan. Maybe even a mutiny is possible.

The recent outbursts by this special officer, who is not new to politics, make us wonder whether there is any hidden agenda behind this.

This officer has been going round giving talks no less than 60 times over the past few months. Why the sudden indiscretion?

Any top leader knows that one of the worse things to happen to his image, other than perhaps a sex scandal,  is that of  his closest aide suddenly singing a different tune. It gives an impression that if  people closest to the leader and would thus be relied on to execute the orders of the leader are  not convinced of the 1Malaysia idea, how is this leader going to transform his ideas into action, and how is the whole transformation program going to work?

If there is resistance even at his sides, than it goes without saying that the resistance at party   level would even be greater.

It is natural for any change to be resisted, since it is human nature to resist change. But if there are resistance even at the level where the people are supposed to be handpicked by you and supposed to have sworn loyalty to you, than something is really very very wrong. It is indeed more than just embarrassment.

It is either that this aide is truly against the idea of his boss, or it could signal something even more sinister – that perhaps below the calm water, there are strong undercurrents ready to do havoc.  Either way, this is not a good sign.

It is bad to   lead an army that does not agree with your plan and tactics; but it may be worse if the whole army , under the influence of certain ambitious colonels or retired generals , try to sabotage and perhaps stage a mutiny.

It is up to the general to stand firm and start weeding out those singing a different tunes. An army must have certain discipline; and the general must exercise disciplinary action without fear or favour in order to send a strong signal to those who are in disagreement.

Sometimes, in politics as well as in battles, you need to kill a chicken to warn the monkeys to toe the line.

(This article appears in MalaysianInsider as well as Sin Chew online)