'Winnable candidate' concept fuels sabotage fears

With the 'winnable candidate' concept emerging at this year's Umno annual general assembly, signalling that conventional criteria will not be the basis for choosing candidates in the next general election, fears of sabotage by dissatisfied members has been hotly debated among delegates since Wednesday.

From their speeches, it has become clear that infighting for candidacy at divisional level and possible sabotage by those who are not fielded and their supporters are a real concern for Umno.

This has prompted several delegates taking part in the AGM debates to urge the party leadership to put in place mechanisms to solve these problems, including setting up a disciplinary committee.

"Set up a disciplinary committee for 13th general election immediately. How to work to win the general election if we are not firm in facing this issue?" Penang delegate Musa Sheikh Fadzir (right) said this morning.

Apart from the divisions, Musa said, the top leadership of Umno should also be held responsible for the party's setback in the 2008 general election, for they failed to act against members who sabotaged the party, even though a number of complaints had been made.

'Abdullah infuriated many Umno warlords'

Some delegates concluded that Umno's appalling performance in 2008 was mostly caused by subversion within the party, especially in Kedah, where the numbers of spoilt votes in several constituencies were higher than the opposition's majority. For the first time in the history, BN lost the state to the Opposition.

Many political observers agreed that former prime minister and Umno president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who led BN's campaign in last general election, had infuriated many local Umno warlords by fielding candidates they opposed, which led to the worst electoral result in the party's history.

A delegate representing the Youth wing during the debate yesterday, Megat Firdouz Megat Junid, shared Musa's view and called for severe punishment to be taken against betrayers, including sacking them from party posts and banning them from contesting any election for two terms.

Apart from stern action, delegates also proposed to that a soft approach be used.

Megat Firdouz suggested that name lists of candidates picked for election should be announced early, so that "efforts to placate those who are hurt" could be taken .

Perak delegate Shaarani Mohamad, who took part in the Youth debate on Wednesday, suggested that party president Najib Abdul Razak summons all office-bearers not chosen as election candidates a month before dissolving Parliament.

"Talk to them frankly: 'Sorry, you are not qualified, the party has chosen better candidates to win the general election'," Shaarani said, adding that finding winnable candidates would be easier than dropping the incumbents.

Members urged to cease fights for seats

Many party leaders and delegates also repeatedly called on members to cease their fights for seats in the coming election.

Among others, Kelantan representative Md Alwi Che Ahmad urged members to learn from Khalid Al-Walid, an Arab general during the administration of Prophet Saidina Umar, who was sacked but did not feel disheartened and continued to struggle for Islam.

"We fight during general elections, not for posts or other things but for the people. Remember, to be a representative is not easy, the responsibilities are huge," Md Alwi said yesterday while debating the president's policy speech.

The same message was conveyed by Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin (right) in his winding-up speech on Wednesday.

Citing himself as example, Khairy said he never became sulky, although he is the only Youth chief in the history of Umno who has not been appointed to any important government post.

Another contentious issue was the definition of 'winnable candidate', which Najib, who introduced the concept, has never made clear.

This prompted leaders and delegates to set their own criteria.

Musa of Penang wants the party to reject "president's candidates" - candidates preferred by the party president - as they may not enjoy support from the divisions.

Megat Firdouz urged the leadership to drop candidates who lobbied to be given seats through four approaches: political connections or "cables", sympathy, threats and "golden handshakes".

Similarly, Khairy advised members to reject the use of "cables" to lobby for seats.

This was also echoed by Umno supreme council member and former Perlis menteri besar Shahidan Kassim, who said the use of "cables" in 2008 had affected his post of menteri besar.

Khairy also revealed that aspiring candidates were using gleaming reports from government intelligence agencies to lobby for seats, but this would not work as Najib would adopt a new formula to chose candidates.

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