This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on May 8, 2017 - May 14, 2017

If you are a leader of a political party, would you allow your children to become members of the party and let them move up the ranks? Or perhaps just “parachute” them into positions of reckoning?

Whatever your choice, would you not be accused of nepotism?

So, what do you do? Prevent your children from joining the party? Or stop them from ­entering politics altogether, ­although they are intelligent and capable? Now, wouldn’t that be unfair to them?

It’s not easy to answer that.

What we have in this country is father-and-son (sometimes daughter, but usually son) scenarios. A father-and-son team running the party, so to speak. Then, we have brothers and cousins getting into the picture. And family legacy, of course.

We have seen this play out many times and it is still going on.

The most recent case occurred in PAS. Muhammad Khalil Hadi, the son of president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, is now party youth chief — a post he won uncontested.

Hadi has denied proposing his son for any position.

Political analyst Dr Oh Ei Sun, a former political secretary to Datuk Seri Najib Razak, had this to say: “In this country, a semi-feudalistic mentality still exists, so the Hadi father-son scenario still prevails.”

Khalil took over from Nik Abduh Nik Aziz, the son of the late Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat.

Incidentally, Hadi’s son-in-law Zaharuddin Muhammad sits on the party’s central working committee.

An Umno insider, commenting generally on the issue and not on PAS specifically, said, “Personally, saya tak gemar (I don’t like). This is not politics based on merit anymore.

“It has become a family legacy. To me, it’s a mockery of democracy and I believe it will be more dangerous if there’s the element of religion involved. Lebih parah (more grievous), bro.”

Anyway, long before the present situation, we had Lim Kit Siang as DAP secretary-general, with his son Lim Guan Eng rising through the ranks. The younger Lim is now secretary-general while the older Lim has taken on an advisory role in the party.

Back in those days, Kit Siang was often accused of nepotism by the Barisan Nasional. He would shoot back, saying the only “favour” Guan Eng got from him was a jail term in 1994 and detention under the Internal Security Act in 1987.

He was referring to Guan Eng’s imprisonment under the Sedition Act following his criticism of the government’s failure to bring former Melaka chief minister Tan Sri Rahim Thamby Chik’s alleged statutory rape case to trial.

Also, the infamous 1987 Operasi Lalang when Kit Siang himself was detained, ­together with 106 other politicians and activists, including Guan Eng.

On the latest political front, Datuk Seri Muhkriz Mahathir is deputy president of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia — a party in which its supporters and members are previously with Umno — while his father Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is party chairman.

When both were in Umno, Mukhriz was Kedah liaison head and became Kedah menteri besar when BN wrested control of the state from PAS in the 13th general election in 2013, although Dr Mahathir was not holding any high position in Umno.

Dr Mahathir has fought back against accusations that he wanted his son made prime minister, saying that he could have done that when he was prime minister.

And then, of course, there is Parti Keadilan Rakyat. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is ketua umum or party leader. His wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail is party president while their daughter Nurul Izzah is vice-president.

But then, PKR, which started as Parti Keadilan National in 1999, was formed during the reformasi days when Anwar was sacked from Umno. He was ­later jailed for sexual misconduct and corruption, charges many believe were politically ­motivated.

Dr Wan Azizah was thrust into the political arena and Nurul Izzah, who was 18 years old then, found herself having to meet world leaders to plead her father’s case.

As we all know, Anwar is now back in prison on a second sodomy conviction, which he says was also based on trumped-up charges.

Within the BN fold, MCA and MIC have their share of family members dabbling in politics too.

When Tan Sri Ong Ka Ting was MCA president, his brother Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan was secretary-general.

During Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik’s presidency, his sons, Hee Leong and Hee Keat, were rather active in the party. So too was Datuk Chua Tee Yong, when his father Tan Sri Dr Chua Soi Lek was MCA’s No 1.

In MIC, during Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu’s tenure as president, his son Datuk Seri Vell Paari was, in the words of an MIC watcher, “somewhere on the fringes”.

But now with Datuk Seri Dr S Subramaniam at the helm of the party, Vell Paari is MIC treasurer-general, whose path, detractors say, was “paved by the father for the son”, but MIC says “the man is there on merit”.

In Umno, blood ties matter too. Family members of leaders were and still are very much active in the party at various levels.

When Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was party president, his son-in-law Khairy ­Jamaluddin rose to prominence in Umno and Malaysian politics.

The children of current Umno president and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak do not hold any position in the party or government.

While conceding that Najib “has gone through the mill”, critics say being the son of former party president Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, who was also the country’s second prime minster, “was a big advantage to put Najib where he is now”.

Using that as a yardstick, Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein should also be enjoying such an advantage as his father Tun Hussein Onn was a former party president as well and Malaysia’s third prime minister. Lest we forget, his grandfather Datuk Onn Jaafar was Umno founder.

And to top it all off, Hishammuddin’s mother and Najib’s mother are sisters, making Umno’s No 1 and No 3 cousins.

Hence, the recent appointment of Hishammuddin as minister with special functions in the Prime Minister’s Department while retaining his position as minister of defence raised many an eyebrow and set tongues wagging.

Again talking in general terms, the Umno insider said “dynasty politics must be about capability, not merely family name”.

While agreeing that to prevent family members from joining a party just because the father is leading it is unfair, the Umno man said they should not be given an easy climb up the ladder as “we can’t tolerate wild cards”.

To Oh, there is no way to end it, “not even in America, where they have the Kennedys, the Bushs and the Clintons”.

And he recalled the presidential days of John F Kennedy when he appointed his brother Robert as attorney-general.

But could JFK make such an appointment if he was the president today? No, he cannot because there is now a law prohibiting presidents from hiring relatives. The JFK-inspired nepotism rule or the US anti-nepotism law was highlighted again when President Donald Trump named three of his ­children as well as his son-in-law Jared Kushner as members of his transition team.

Today, he is still skirting around it for Kushner.

Well, back to our own issue. I must conclude with Oh’s words: “What we can hope for is these family dynasties do not become like the one in North Korea.”

I say amen to that.

Mohsin Abdullah is a veteran journalist who is now a freelance writer. He was formerly executive producer at The Edge TV.

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