Transmenu powered by JoomlArt.com - Mambo Joomla Professional Templates Club

• Ku Li: Umno is here to stay

©The Sunday Times, Singapore (Used by permission)
by Carolyn Hong, Malaysia Bureau Chief In Kuala Lumpur

• Lots of anger in Umno but little action

But his challenge for party's leadership has little chance given its patronage roots

If there are two things that Malaysia's dominant Umno party thrives on, it is shadowy power play and a strong Malay agenda.

And if there are two themes that have characterised Kelantan prince Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah's reform agenda for Umno, it's democracy and multiracialism.

In the two months since the March 8 polls, which handed the Umno-led Barisan Nasional thumping losses, the soft-spoken prince has called for reforms that would turn the party inside out, and shake up Malaysia's administration.

Umno and the government are closely intertwined. The party's top officials hold the top government posts, and party positions often shape government policy. The party president is traditionally Malaysia's prime minister.

Thus, Tengku Razaleigh's ideas are stirring interest as he has declared his intention to take on Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi for the party president's post in the internal polls in December.

The Umno veteran's campaign has, so far, been low key, but his message is clear.

He wants Umno's three million members to have a vote, instead of leaving the elections in the hands of the 2,500 delegates to the annual assembly.

And he wants Umno to shed its ultra-Malay image for a multiracial outlook.

Both these messages are, in fact, interlinked, as Tengku Razaleigh said the problem with Umno is not racism but cronyism.

'If you ask Umno chaps themselves, they say it's not racial bias. It is group bias because of cronyism that has crept into the party. These abuses have tended to give fodder for others to criticise Umno as being racial,' he said.

Democratisation will loosen the grip of a small group of Malay elites on the party, and by extension the government, and break the chain of cronyism which feeds a hardline Malay agenda.

These are bold ideas.

But as Tengku Razaleigh told The Sunday Times, Umno needs new ideas as there has been a serious erosion of confidence in its leadership since the general election.

He said he was offering himself as party president because those in the party hierarchy did not want to move.

'So if no one wants to take up the challenge, I'll do it,' he said.

He was, of course, referring to Deputy Premier Najib Razak who has repeatedly pledged loyalty to PM Abdullah.

Tengku Razaleigh, 71, was speaking in an interview in his residence, nicknamed the White House for its passing resemblance to the more famous American version and complete with an oval office.

The former finance minister is hoping to ride the groundswell of anger on the Umno ground over the electoral losses which saw the party lose control of four states.

But his difficulty, of course, is getting into the race at all. He needs at least 58 of Umno's 191 divisions to nominate him.

That would be extremely difficult, given the pressure piled on by the party's warlords. In fact, he even finds it hard to fill the hall when he meets grassroots members.

In his talk in Batu Pahat in Johor last Sunday, which drew about 300, the prince lost his cool and thumped the podium, saying that he was being treated as a communist or thief in the night for trying to speak to party members.

His leadership challenge is clearly being taken seriously.

He made his first bid for the party presidency in 1988, and lost by a mere 43 votes to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in a bitter party poll. He left Umno to form Semangat 46 with the opposition but returned a decade later.

Having been out of Umno's inner circles for 20 years, he is not touched by its controversies. But it also means that he's cut off from the influential power circles, and a whole generation has grown knowing little about him.

He has an illustrious background, being from the Kelantan royal house and an MP since 1969. He was instrumental in building many of Malaysia's financial institutions and among the early cohort of leaders who shaped the country.

To him, even the idea of Malay supremacy has now become twisted from its original meaning of leadership.

'It's just a phrase from old times. Ketuanan (supremacy) from the rulers, customs and cultural heritage. I think that's about all,' he said.

Few political analysts give him much of a chance because of Umno's deep patronage roots but Tengku Razaleigh thinks he can reach the party grassroots.

He has started to ramp up his campaign, with a roadshow that will take him throughout Malaysia over the next few months.

'It is not just me who is striving for leadership change,' he said.

In Tengku Razaleigh's words

'If you ask Umno chaps themselves, they say it's not racial bias. It is group bias because of cronyism that has crept into the party. These abuses have tended to give fodder for others to criticise Umno as being racial.'
On the problem with Umno

'It's just a phrase from old times. Ketuanan (supremacy) from the rulers, customs and cultural heritage. I think that's about all.'
Saying the idea of Malay supremacy has been twisted from its original meaning of leadership

'It is not just me who is striving for leadership change.'
Saying he thinks he can reach the party grassroots

Lots of anger in Umno but little action

Kuala Lumpur - For a month after the March 8 general election, the Umno ground was livid at its losses.

In meeting after meeting, they bayed for the blood of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi.

But when it came to taking action, only four of the 191 Umno divisions nationwide have held extraordinary general meetings to talk about the unprecedented losses. Two others cancelled theirs at short notice.

It seemed rather extraordinary.

Of the four divisions, only two passed resolutions which reflected the anger that seemed to permeate the grassroots.

The divisions of Cheras in Kuala Lumpur, and Batu Pahat in Johor, had called on Datuk Seri Abdullah to set a date for his departure as party president, and to hand it over to his deputy Najib Razak before the party polls in December.

But the other two divisions took a much tamer line.

The Bandar Tun Razak division in Kuala Lumpur, in fact, expressed support for Datuk Seri Abdullah to continue serving as president and prime minister.

But it also passed a resolution calling for an open contest of the top post.

And of course, the Gua Musang division in Kelantan, headed by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, who has declared that he will challenge PM Abdullah for the party presidency.

This division passed a resolution calling for an open contest for the top post.

Two other divisions - Pasir Mas in Kelantan and Tenom in Sabah - cancelled theirs on short notice.

The lack of enthusiasm is not unexpected. It is clearly linked to the fact that it was Tengku Razaleigh who proposed the EGMs.

Soon after the general election, which saw Umno losing control of four states - Perak, Selangor, Kedah and Kelantan - the Umno veteran proposed a national EGM to analyse the results.

He had also intended for the EGM to remove the requirement that any contender to the president's post must secure 30 per cent or 58 nominations.

To get a national EGM going, half of Umno's 191 divisions have to hold their own EGM to request it.

And at the rate it's going, Tengku Razaleigh will have to give up on this strategy.

'I can't even get people to hold EGMs, although quite a number of divisions that came to see me showed interest in debating the election, and to amend the party Constitution that is not democratic in nature,' he told The Straits Times.

Any division that held an EGM could be seen as supporting Tengku Razaleigh and the pressure is great from the party's warlords.

The Tenom division cancelled its meeting at short notice after a directive from the Sabah state Umno.

The lack of response after such a dramatic March where many divisions openly called for a succession plan - code for an exit plan for PM Abdullah - is an indication that a leadership change will not be as swift as it initially appeared.

The anger which riled the Umno grassroots may be dissipating, and the powerful division heads may, in the end, keep to the party line.

PM Abdullah has said that he will seek re-election this December, and privately indicated that he would only step down at the end of next year or in 2010.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (1)

Subscribe to this comment's feed