Ku Nan insists Umno is trustworthy, denies patronage label

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 4 — Umno is not a party of patronage and has shown it can be trusted, its secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor has said, even as analysts and critics told the New York Times (NYT) in an article published today that reforms have not gone far enough and that it had failed to stand for all Malaysians regardless of race.

Despite Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s move to spur the economy and revamp government policies by replacing archaic laws seen to gag dissent and allow for greater freedom, the ruling coalition’s mainstay has had to deflect criticism in the run-up to key national polls that its transformation programmes fall short of affecting real change and uphold the rights of the country’s significant 40 per cent minority population.

“It’s not fair to say we are a party of patronage,” the Umno secretary-general told the influential newspaper in an interview published today.

“We are open for anyone. If you feel that the party is wrong, you come in and correct the party because we are a democratic system,” he was reported saying.

Tengku Adnan(picture), popularly known as Ku Nan, pointed out that the federal government has instituted many changes to help non-Malays in the last four years, such as offering more public university scholarships, besides noting that the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) had done well in by-elections held since the 12th general election.

The BN had won half of the record 16 by-elections called between 2008 and April 2011.

“This is a trend to show us what we are doing since the 2008 election, we are moving on the right track.

“I think the citizens of Malaysia realise we are a party that they can trust,” he told NYT.

But observers argue that the changes introduced by the sixth prime minister continue to protect the business and political interests of its close associates and the majority race.

Barry Wain, author of the book “Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times,” told NYT that Umno has become a “patronage machine” that dishes out lucrative contracts to its followers and lacked new ideas to improve the country for nearly 20 years compared to the early days of the party’s founding in 1946.

“There wasn’t any real, strong opposition for a long time,” Wain, a writer in residence at Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, told the US daily.

Wan Saiful Wan Jan, chief executive of local think-tank Institute of Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), told NYT the BN government now has to deal with the large number of first-time voters who are also mostly young workers and have to deal with a bearish global economy. 

“They grew up in an environment where Umno has been increasingly accused of being corrupt, and at the same time the economic situation of the country makes it not that easy for them to get a job anymore,” he told the paper.

Malaysia’s economy grew 5.2 per cent in the last quarter but analysts have noted that salaries had not grown at the same rate as the inflated cost of living, particularly in cities, which could lead to increasing dissatisfaction towards the government.

James Chin, head of Monash University Malaysia’s arts and social sciences faculty, told the widely-read paper that the government’s move to placate its urban voters with cash handouts could prove problematic, unlike their peers who lives in rural areas.

A longtime observer of Malaysian politics, Australia’s professor emeritus in the University of New South Wales, Clive Kessler, told NYT that “the old regime framework,” which promoted affirmative action measures for the Malay majority, no longer held sway after 2008 and Umno need to become a “genuinely centrist, progressive party” if it wanted to win back support from the middle ground, but instead, “it capitulated to the hardline Malay right.”

Political analysts pointed to the recently-concluded Umno assembly last weekend where some party delegates continued to call for action against those who engage in homosexuality, pluralism and liberalism.