Umno its own worst enemy, says Sabah veteran Salleh

It doesn't matter who heads Umno, the party's culture no longer acceptable to civil society.

KUALA LUMPUR: Stepping into the current fray about Najib Razak’s political future, veteran Sabah politician Salleh Said Keruak says the Umno president is not the problem, but it is the party itself that is its own worst enemy.

The party must reform or it will face the prospect of being ousted, he says in his latest blog posting, in which he makes a veiled hint about corruption and that Umno’s ways were no longer acceptable to society.

Salleh took issue with comments by an ally of Mahathir Mohamad, former editor Kadir Jasin, who has called for Najib’s removal, and with the DAP’s Ariff Sabri, MP for Raub, who said today that Najib was “finished”.

“It does not matter whether Najib or whoever it may be heads Umno and becomes the Prime Minister of Malaysia,” said Salleh, who is head of Sabah Umno’s Kota Belud division.

“As long as Umno does not see that it is its own worst enemy and start executing reforms, Umno will face the risk of being rejected by the voters.

“It is very convenient to blame Najib for all the problems that Umno is facing. Do these people really think that by kicking out Najib Umno is going to be saved? ”

“Umno can only be saved once it realises that the voters are not opposed to the Prime Minister as much as they are angry about the Umno culture, which can no longer be accepted in a civil society,” he wrote.

Salleh chided former editor Kadir for not understanding history in making an analogy with the assassination of Julius Caesar as being necessary for the survival of the Roman Empire and thus seeing the need for Najib’s ouster.

But in turn Salleh makes his own analogy, between the corruption of the Roman Empire causing its downfall, and Umno’s current problems.

He points out that “the problem was not Caesar. The problem was a corrupt Roman society. And it was this corruption that eventually brought about the decline and collapse of the Roman Empire.”

Similarly, in present-day Malaysia, the problem was not Najib — the problem was Umno and Umno’s culture.

“Caesar was assassinated by certain members of the senate, some his friends, not because Caesar was bad for Rome but because of political rivalry and jealousy,” Salleh said.

“Caesar’s detractors were worried that he was getting too popular and therefore needed to be removed but his removal led to a civil war and power struggles among succeeding dictators bringing about Rome’s decline.

“Hence, to save Rome, they needed to reform society rather than assassinate Caesar. And to save Umno this is also what you need to do, reform the party.”