Aliran is outraged at the political arrogance of the Malacca Chief Minister Mohd Ali Rustam, who also displayed his sheer ignorance of the basic precepts of good governance in a functioning democracy.

Mohd Ali recently announced that the state government had stopped engaging private doctors, lawyers, architects, and other professionals who are opposition party members. Doctors who are known to be opposition party members would be removed from government panel clinics. He also warned that government officers in the state who are found to be sympathetic to the opposition would be transferred out.

This policy violates the citizen's basic freedom of association, discriminates against opposition party members, and divides the people. It is a classic example of a blatant abuse of executive power.

The policy also deprives certain qualified Malaysian professionals a legitimate avenue to earn a decent living. Mohd Ali should remember that irrespective of their political affiliations, opposition party sympathisers are Malaysians first and foremost and have every right to be treated equally. After all, they are also taxpayers. The state, it must be remembered, does not belong to the Barisan or UMNO but is funded by taxpayers and hence the government has not right to discriminate against any Malaysian. If it does, it is the nation that will be the loser as it will lose the services of many capable or eminently qualified professionals, who will be barred from contributing to the well-being of society simply because they don’t belong to the ruling party.

For instance, early last year, Dr Chandra Muzaffar failed to get his contract with University Malaya's Centre for Civilisational Dialogue renewed. Chandra's students were left in a lurch just as they were about to take their examinations while his post-graduate students lost the benefit of his supervision of their theses and dissertations.

Faced with UMNO's eroding support, UMNO politicians are desperately resorting to all kinds of undemocratic measures to cling to power. Mohd Ali's announcement is the latest in a series of desperate measures by desperate politicians.

With talk of a possible leadership challenge in the air, that desperation is displayed in the manner the party is run with an iron fist, making it difficult for potential contenders for the party's top leadership to mount a challenge.

It was Mohd Ali who was among those who had earlier suggested a no-contest for the top party posts, a call that the party's Supreme Council eventually heeded. Now he has announced discriminatory measures against opposition party members, and it is the UMNO president who echoes his call and justifies it.

Mohd Ali's current posturing should also be seen as the latest attempt by UMNO politicians to project themselves as 'heroes' deserving of support at a time when UMNO divisions are in the process of nominating candidates for the party elections. Most of these politicians do not have the interests of Malaysians at heart. What they say and do has nothing to do with the welfare of the country but everything to do with their own interests.

But if history is any guide, politicians who abuse their power to curb the basic freedom of citizens for their selfish personal and political interests will eventually be cast aside.