Do Najib a national favour, don't nominate 'tainted' candidates for GE-13

LETTER I was scanning through the newspapers and came across this interesting article that I thought captured the picture in Umno quite well and would like to share it with the readers here.

Like many other Malaysians and political analysts and pundits, Azman Ujang has expressed his thoughts as published in his column, Off the Cuff in the Sun dated October 4th, 2011 (scroll below). What may constitute as "winnable candidates" and how the BN selection and nomination process go, as Azman said, the term has only been used recently due to the political sentiments of the last 12th general election.

According to Azman, it was a terminology that came after the shock defeat of BN candidates across the nation, when apparently strong candidates were rejected by the emotional voters, especially UMNO, MCA and Gerakan potential MPs and ADUNs. It was the 2008 political tsunami, said my friend Azman Ujang, the well known and highly connected former Editor-in-Chief of Bernama.

Inheriting Pak Lah's 'curse'

Personally, I do not think that Pak Lah or Abdullah Badawi, the former BN chairman and PM, who was 'cursed' by certain influential political masters should solely be responsible and take the blame for BN's historical defeat post March 2008.

If you disagree with me, then are you saying that the former UMNO president and secretary-general before Pak Lah's time should be indemnified from any blame and public displeasure for the loss of five states and the FT of Kuala Lumpur in the worst political fiasco, which had disgraced the BN government and the nation?

In a nutshell, these notable and selfish political figures have tainted the national image and credibility of the then prime minister Pak Lah as well as the BN government. They had been rejected by the people due to their egoism and, to a certain extent, their alleged corrupt practices and abuse of power across the nation and for all the years of complacency and political patronage in our system.

Sadly so, even the BN chief and prime minister had not much influence over these UMNO-BN king makers, who draw their strength from their divisional political bases in their respective constituencies. Today, almost the same "political clowns" are still around, with their antics and ready to sabotage Najib in his political transformation programs.

Someone had remarked to me that, "what's there that remains in UMNO-BN for Najib to engage these unscrupulous divisional leaders as some of them are parked in the high-powered supreme councils and central committees of their respective parties?"

A need to get rid of the deadwood

Having said that, I believe that Najib will not mince his words as he has initiated his strong desire to embark on the political transformation programs, with the view to wipe out government, political and corporate corruption across the nation. It is a wake up call for us and the young voters of this generation.

Will Najib honour his word and commitment to not have such people in his party, Parliament, state assembly, government and more importantly in the next Cabinet? All tainted political, government and corporate leaders and decision makers should be out of our system and no recycled figures in the political and corporate 'make-over'.

My simple advice to the voters, young and old: cast your votes with a clear conscience and do not hesitate to reject those candidates who are no longer with Najib and the majority of the people.

Let's do Najib a national favour and do not place your trust in those political clowns who are deemed to be the most vocal speakers in their political campaigns. As the saying goes: 'Prevention is better than cure' as public office is a public trust.

In the words of JV Langmead, and I quote, " Because men are everywhere corruptible and always corrupted, no man or group of men can be trusted with too much power and indeed with no power at all which is not balanced or checked by the power of other men."

Tumbling two-thirds majority?

I believe BN will be returned to power with a tumbling two-thirds majority and stronger mandate under Najib's leadership in managing this beloved nation, and we should all help him to push for a "New Malaysia." Don't just criticise Najib for the sake of criticism without any basis or substantiated proof unless you have evidence of his alleged wrong doings. It is important, the people be the better judge in accepting or rejecting their respresentatives to Parliament or the state assembly.

Najib knows it's a political gamble in going through this coming 13th general election, a date which he is fearful to disclose at this crucial point in time despite widespread speculation for the D-Date. It's better to lose a few controversial seats than continue to tolerate the stubborn, selfish and egoistic political partners who will further damage the image and integrity of the BN government.

What we need is personal and national sacrifice in order that this nation will move forward with less political power-play which has already frustrated the people. Najib must walk the talk and forget the empty rhetoric and dreams that will be task of Anwar and his PR political stooges, who will politicise everything to make themselves 'winnable' in the fiercely fought 13th general election to be called within the next few months.

BN needs to have their own icons

Last but not least, there are no such thing as "winnable candidates" when the people's mood is emotional and they will give their votes to individual icons like Nurul Izzah, Tony Pua, Tian Chua and other notable young leaders in the Pakatan Rakyat.

Does BN too have a list of "winnable candidates" and for that to materialise, I wish to suggest that the "report cards for past performing MPs and Aduns" should be publicised for public scrutiny. In short, Najib and his strategic team should examine the annual reports of all UMNO-BN divisions provided by all the powerful divisional heads as figures and facts will be the winning criteria for all candidates to be nominated in the coming general election.

The outcome for the 'winnable' candidates will be the rightful decision of voters, but should they make the wrong choice based on certain sentiments and emotions, the nation will go to the dogs, and destroyed will be what our leaders have built over the last 54 years of our Malaysian history.

- Dato Mustapaha Ong is a retired top civil servant and diplomat

Winnable candidates

by Azman Ujang

TWO terms relating to the next general election have become popular in the run-up to the national polls that everybody is saying will be held within the next few months. The first is PRU13, the Bahasa Malaysia acronym for the 13th general election, and the second is “winnable candidates”.

Why was “winnable candidates” coined this time around or for the coming election and not in previous ones? What makes such a candidate and what kind of creatures are they?

I would say that this terminology came about following the political tsunami of 2008 when many apparently strong candidates fielded by the Barisan Nasional, especially Umno, lost in Peninsular Malaysia. As a result, the BN lost five states as well as the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, apart from its two-thirds majority in Parliament.

And many of those who lost were beaten by unknowns fielded by the Pakatan Rakyat coalition which was reported to have problems even in getting the numbers.

The story making its rounds then was that a number of opposition candidates were shocked that they had won and overnight become lawmakers or elected representatives.

Stung by this reality, the term winnable candidates was bandied about by top Umno leaders to give their politicians, especially division chiefs, an early warning that the party will have to change its criteria of choosing candidates for the general election.

Umno is one party that’s too ketua bahagian-centric and everything seems to revolve around them. They have an aura of indispensability about them and this is what’s holding back Umno when it comes to choosing candidates. For too long, one has had to be a division chief (there are 191 divisions) to be of any reckoning. It’s the key to one climbing the party or national political ladder.

In short, they are the party’s king-makers whose votes and that of their divisions are even more precious to elect the top party line-up in the Supreme Council – Umno’s highest policy-making body.

Over the past year or so, Prime Minister and Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak has been stressing how vital it is for the party to have winnable candidates in order to take on a resurgent and better-prepared opposition front the next time around.

So has his deputy, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. During a visit to Universiti Putra Malaysia in Serdang on Friday, Muhyiddin said experience and position in Umno will not guarantee a candidacy in the general election. Among the criteria he mentioned were public acceptance and feedback from the ground that would be taken into account even if an aspiring candidate had all the right qualifications. His remarks were the clearest indication so far that quite a sizeable number of division chiefs will not be fielded in the coming polls.

The deputy prime minister was quick to add that there would of course be unhappiness and dissatisfaction among the division chiefs to be left out of the candidates’ list but said this was a crucial step to determine Umno’s future and survival and to ensure the mandate returns to the BN.

It is an open secret that non-cooperation and even outright sabotage by certain division leaders who were dropped as candidates in the 2008 election was a big contributing factor to Umno losing so many seats.

I saw this first-hand in a parliamentary constituency when I looked up an old friend who was the BN candidate. One of the stops the candidate was supposed to make during campaigning was at a surau for maghrib (evening) prayers with Umno members.

But well past prayer time and as dinner was being served, there was no sign of the candidate and many supporters were restless. When I phoned him up to say if he wanted to save his campaign and win, he better show up immediately, he spoke of such a sabotage tactic by party workers of the incumbent whom he replaced. “I was told only to move after getting the green light from them and normally this was given when the crowd has thinned out,” said the candidate, one of several “parachute candidates” (or non-division chiefs).

When the candidate arrived at the surau, one of the first things he did was to embrace me to thank me profusely for “saving him”, but by that time many who were on the verge of leaving managed to be persuaded to return to welcome the candidate.

He, however, won his seat, apparently because voters did not have the heart to dump him for the Opposition as he was then a cabinet minister and still is.

It will be interesting to see how Umno would handle such acts of sabotage, that in the past included the operations room being rendered non-functional by dropped division chiefs.

I was among a panel of speakers invited by an NGO to talk about PRU13 at a golf resort in Batu Gajah, Perak, a few nights ago and the topic of winnable candidates also cropped up.

One veteran Perak politician asked me to convey to the top Umno leadership the message that Perak Umno needed to put up many new candidates this time, given the fact that the BN government in the state was toppled in the last election. “We must do away with these old faces who have been the candidates again and again,” he said.

It will be interesting to see the extent to which Umno would push its “winnable candidates” agenda this time, but nobody doubts it will be quite a drastic one. - Sun