‘Questionable’ Umno must ‘restock’ its talent pool

The age of 'Umno is king' and 'government knows best' no longer applies, according to a former Umno state assemblyman.

COMMENT

Former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim cannot take comfort from the fact that many do not believe its him in the obnoxious sex video.

As long as there are grounds for doubt people will disbelieve it. What Umno people are battling against is not whether Anwar did it or did not.

Umno is battling against the general perception that whatever Umno dishes out is questionable.

That is the real question we should be asking, especially if we are Umno people. Why is that now, whatever Umno says is no longer accepted unquestioningly.

In fact everything that Umno says and does now, is disputed. There may be several reasons for this.

First, is it the credibility of Umno itself? Perhaps it has done so much mischief over the years, corruption, abuse of power, arrogance and bullying that people just find Umno loathsome.

Umno has an image problem never leavened by the presence of really despicable leaders.

Its image is not redeemed either by the continued presence of elders tainted with corruption, by the presence of overbearing, overweening and patronizing leaders giving out daily doses of homilies and unsolicited life instructions.

Comical Najib

Umno president Najib Tun Razak has to jettison many of these if he is serious about transforming Umno.

How can he transform the nation with all his grandiose plans, if the means by which to do that are dominated by the same old characters?

It’s almost comically contradictory of Najib (who is also Prime Minister) to talk about talent when Umno itself appears hostile to potentially talented leaders who can make the difference?

Umno has to restock its talent pool, it has to transform itself and apply all the performance measures on itself.

Will the PM and his deputy, Muhyiddin Yassin take on a-hands-on approach?

Publicized social walk-abouts in chosen areas are no substitute getting down to real people. People see those as mocked up and so artificial. So what if the PM goes to Batu Caves?

Kedah Menteri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak of PAS is the first Malay and Muslim to break earth for the construction of a non-Muslim place of worship. How is the action taken by Azizan of PAS of any less value than what the PM is doing?

It’s only an earth-shattering approach in the minds of Umno people. And that too only because they have held out as imperialist and see themselves as dispensable.

Umno leaders think people still have to adjust to Umno’s terms. But the fact of the matter is that the epitaph “government knows best’ and ‘Umno is king” is no longer applicable in the current age.

The writer is a former Umno state assemblyman and an FMT columnist.