Regaining lost ground

I have read numerous comments saying UMNO is doomed. I too have been criticizing UMNO quite a bit but I have also maintained my faith in UMNO. It's difficult to abandon something you were a part of and indeed got elected on its ticket. So while I criticized and shall continue to do so, I maintain my belief in this party which Malays can identify with.

If so, why did the party lose a lot of Malay support in 2008? It lost a number of states. I have already written two articles on that and shall continue to point out in some follow up articles.

It's easy to criticize a party when they dropped in the polls. And it now seems clear that the polls of 2008, things didn't look rosy for UMNO and BN. from a commanding position of securing 2/3^rds majority, it has lost that lead. It now has 140 seats in parliament while the non BN parties have 82. As I said in my two articles the chief cause for the losses are UMNO's arrogance and their trivializing of risks.

The problem for the BN and UMNO is obviously that they're and will be looking at quite a sustained period of bad news. Presumably we're looking at many months of sluggish economic growth, more job losses, and just the general mess that Governments have to put up with.

The PM, UMNO and BN will hope to be able to announce a turnaround in the economy which the public actually notice and feel. For example, they have postponed the introduction of GST- which the public will definitely feel. What's the use of implementing a tax system that actually hurts the lower income group who will be compensated only later in the form of aid package?

But they still need to do something to keep their polling numbers up in the meantime. The government can't expect to do this just by lining up "feel good news" stories - public holidays, minor tax breaks etc.

Instead there seems to me to be two options. The first is deliberately choosing a few very high-profile rows on those issues most important to the public, above all the economy. This would involve the deliberate highlighting (and exacerbating) of major policy disagreements such that the public was forced to choose in their own minds between two competing futures.

For example, the policy makers in the government can put up a spirited case as to why the ETP projects will indeed work. So far the opposing side has shown nothing other than just opposing these plans. Another is to justify the construction of the 100 storey building by PNB when many are questioning the wisdom to do so including this author. employ consultants if you need to put every one of us in our place. You need to show just one success story to silence your critics.

The second model would be to follow the one created by Clinton in the mid-90s - where he announced a series of high profile policies designed to show that he was in touch with the values of Malaysian voters such as serious action against corruption, real reform on the judicial system with the retirement of nonproductive judges, a cleanup of the police force again through retiring the rotten apples in the force, or even retiring some non performing ministers. Also policies on steps to introduce transparency such as mandating open tenders.

Perhaps the two most important issues that are creating public distress are corruption and lack of transparency. In the former, what would immediately earn public respect is action against people who are generally believed to have amassed wealth beyond their means while holding high office.

Najib should find it be possible to create a "values agenda" here, demonstrating that UMNO/BN are in touch with the public, and the PR people with their own internal feuds and squabbles are out of touch. The areas which we outlined above offer an endless supply of policy announcements that should be relatively cheap but high impact. While no one issue will be enough to turn the polls, the public will end up getting the message in the end.

The main objective is using people's concerns with the state of Malaysia to make them think "I'm just glad they're in the charge and not the other lot." If we can instill this kind of thinking in the public, the opposition parties are gone.

courtesy of sakmongkol AK47