Dr M's shadow over UMNO election

There is still a while to go before UMNO's party election yet the overture is on.

A diversity of voices was raised, calling for the top two posts---the president and the deputy president to be exempt from the elections.

The first to take position was Umno and Barisan secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor. Tengku Adnan is known to be a bulwark of the party thus his taking of position is not something new. Similarly, other opinion taken as pretext to avoid contesting Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s faction is equally justifiable.

It is former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s similar stance that is notable.

Mahathir ever said that it is wise not to contest these top two posts for the unity of UMNO.

Sensitive ones will notice the fine asymmetries between what he had said earlier on.

Soon after the general elections, Mahathir commented Najib’s destiny should be decided by UMNO.

Following the vein, many analysts then concluded that Mahathir was hinting UMNO held the final say for Najib’s leave or stay. That causally suggested Najib might have to face grueling challenges ahead.

Since Mahathir is rhetorically ambiguous, no precise interpretation can be made just yet.

The worries of Najib’s faction can be warranted. The results of the elections made UMNO the winner, adding yet another nine parliamentary seats for the party, though BN’s majority seats decreased and Selangor was not recaptured as anticipated. The result in fact cannot satisfy their expectations and indubitable fanned some grumbles.

Within the party, there are other headwinds charging Najib as well.

To cite, Najib’s many confidantes, including several of his secretaries and assistants, were parachuted as candidates which arose repercussions within the party. The worst thing was, these trusted ones foiled and ended up being criticized with justice forcefully.

They insisted that UMNO could have won at least another ten parliamentary seats if the candidates were wisely assigned.

Despite distributing money and conveying goodwill to the Chinese communities, BN actually earned very few Chinese votes. Many UMNO members took it as an insult; emotionally, they blamed Najib for ‘being too close to the Chinese’.

The said discontentment and repercussions don’t bode well for Najib. The unhappy ones might join force in the party election to challenge Najib’s status quo or disconcert him somehow.

The rules have been changed in this UMNO election. Instead of nominations from the constituencies, followed by some 2,000 central delegates’s polling indirectly, the latest one is a direct polling among the 150,000 grassroots representatives.

In other words, anyone wanting to contest high positions, all it needs is to have one other to nominate him. As such, manipulations are close to impossible and it carries more variables and challenges.

But Najib’s performance merits him, as he made better score in the last UMNO election.

More importantly, Najib’s position and support far exceeds others. No heavy weight figures can make it to challenge him though there are dissenting voices.

If Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s deputy position is secured, conservatives will compromise and that helps sustain the existing order.

That said, UMNO manoeuvres not to contest the top two posts and not the president post.

Other heavy weight figure like vice-president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi though highly promising, he is merely Najib’s follower and therefore unlikely to challenge the top two posts.

The remaining possibility goes to Tunku Razaleigh Hamzah.

Razaleigh didn’t make it to be nominated as a candidate in the past numerically and thus remains a paper tiger. But this direct election mechanism might stand him a chance to contest the top post.

Viewing the ongoing situation, even if Razaleigh is nominated, he can probably make it to the second.

- Sin Chew Daily