Politics here needs an alpha-male figure

A former Umno assemblyman believes that Umno has the 'resources and pragmatism' to operate on democratic principles despite its lack of 'internal vigour'.

COMMENT

I had a tête-à-tête with a former very senior Umno leader recently. He offered an opinion about Umno.

He felt that Umno was waning. I thought I heard it wrong, so I spelt it out for him. “As in w-a-n-i-n-g?” He noded “Yes indeed.”

Why is that so? I asked.

Generally speaking, (he said) it’s because Umno has become more adept at creating a generation of subservient and often muted followers. That makes Umno no different from the colonialists before.

Those days, they (colonialists) liked the Malays to call and refer to them as “Tuan” since that term connotes a master-servant relationship.

The servant remains always subservient and compliant. As a result, followers become a submissive lot, unquestioningly accommodative of the leaders’ despotism and excesses.

Over one or two generations, that practice becomes ingrained. So you can say, one element of Umno culture is the mute syndrome.

What happens then? You sap away the internal vigour. The organisation becomes lifeless. It becomes alive at seasonal intervals as during election of office-bearers. At other times, it sleeps.

The further downside of this habit is that it fosters rebellious instincts. That day will come when the stirrings of rebellion can no longer be contained.

When that happens, Umno will self-implode. So, part of the answer is to give back democracy to Umno. Give back its internal vigour.

Old Umno had vigour

Up to the 1970s, Umno still had more democracy. For example, delegates at the annual assemblies could speak out against leaders.

Tun Razak, at one time, was at the receiving end (of the delegates’ wrath). Even Tun Hussein Onn was challenged by the late Sulaiman Palestin.

Did Umno implode? It did not because members understood democratic principles. They understood that to be democratic is part of the constitution of internal vigour.

Since then there has been a sea change in Umno culture – from one that focuses on the intrinsic abilities of its members as it should be, to one that increasingly veers towards placing a higher premium on “willingness to be loyally submissive”.

What do you call such culture? In essence, it’s feudal. The bottom sections of society stay loyal and serve the higher sections.

What do you get? You get people, as of now, who want to out-Najib Najib himself and people who want to out-Malay the average Malay.

So Umno people become immersed more in an orgy of sabre-rattling and brinkmanship. The lower stratum subsists to please those higher in the hierarchy.

In that process, Umno loses focus on carving out a future that all can share while creating a future for the select.

As Umno becomes more insular in its outlook, it disconnects with the people at large. That accounts for its general ebb. This prognosis is alarmingly unnerving. As Umno people, we would like to see a happy future under Umno hegemony.

That would and could still be an ideal. The problem is, how to validate that agenda?

Loss of shared optimism

Perhaps this is politically incorrect to say but Malaysian politics needs a hegemon – an alpha-male figure to keep the pack in line.

Umno has the resources and pragmatism to be that hegemon. But hopefully it is a hegemon committed to the greater good and operates on democratic principles.

How can Umno play an acceptable role?

In Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s scheme of things, two things must happen.

First, Umno must go back to its first principles. Strive for race, religion and country.

Second, the non-Malay Malaysians have to simply acknowledge the dominance of Malays. How do you validate that?

It is important for anyone reading Malaysian history to differentiate what Mahathir is advocating and what the original Umno, formed in 1946, stood for.

There is a big difference between the present Umno and the original Umno.

That difference was explained by the loss of the most precious element in Umno’s ascendency – the loss of shared unbounded optimism which has been replaced by the present-day pessimism.

At Mahathir’s behest

I am ahead of myself here. But I need to get this out of my system. The rise of general pessimism is the doing of Mahathir himself.

I am surprised that now, in his twilight years, he chose to speak about Malay-first sentiments.

During the 22 years he ruled Malaysia, where was this conviction?

AirAsia was given to a non-Malay. Skypark is now managed by a non-Malay. Lee Kim Yew of Country Heights Holding Bhd would have gone under if not for Mahathir.

Is Lee of superior constitution as a businessman? Bull!

YTL Corporation was a nondescript contractor before Mahathir gave it the affirmative touch. YTL got to operate the ERL (Express Rail Link), ferrying passengers from KL Sentral to KLIA at twice the cost if the same system had been supplied by Ingress Engineering.

Tabung Haji, which looks after the welfare of Muslims, got this project and sub-contracted this to YTL. At whose behest was this done?

Tycoon Ting Pek Khing got to do the Bakun Dam. He cleared all the timber and then went before the government, saying he couldn’t complete the project.

Rampant corruption

The government paid him money for failing to complete the project and poor Sime Darby has to catch the hot potato that was Bakun.

I am told that Mahathir attended a luncheon hosted by GEM – Group of Ex-Ministers.

At the luncheon, he rose to speak about corruption saying that this present government is corrupted from top to bottom. That would have to include the current prime minister.

But (did he forget that ) the seeds of rampant corruption started during his tenure as prime minister. So for Mahathir to now speak about a return to basics is very strange.

Return to the Umno before it was deregistered or to the New Umno?

What Mahathir and the current Umno leadership are doing is to create a future that can be shared among close friends, cronies, the select few, the nobility and so forth.

Just imagine this. Gamuda got to do a rail double-tracking project for RM2.5 billion and subcontracted it to a company for RM1.6 billion. It made RM900 million just like that. Who can’t do that – brown, yellow or black?

Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz is a former Umno state assemblyman who now blogs at Sakmongkol AK47. This article was written for FMT.