The sins of the fathers visit the sons

So what was the just-concluded Umno party election all about? Was it about bringing change to Umno? Certainly not! It is about who is going to take over as Prime Minister once the son of Tun Razak is forced out of office. Is it going to be the son of Tun Hussein Onn or the son of Tun Dr Mahathir? And he who wins the Umno Vice-Presidency can then prepare himself to take on the Deputy Presidency and from thereon the Presidency of Umno, which also means the Prime Ministership of Malaysia.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The pro-Umno Bloggers are on the attack. They are not happy with the just-concluded Umno party election. They were hoping that Mukhriz Mahathir instead of Hishammuddin Hussein would win one of the three Vice-Presidencies.

A. Kadir Jasin is also on the attack (read below). He has repeated what Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has to say about Najib Tun Razak -- which is not at all flattering. But then Kadir Jasin has always been Tun Dr Mahathir’s ‘mouthpiece’. So this is probably not at all surprising.

The issue here is that the son of Tun Hussein Onn won with just a nine-vote lead against the son of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. And they blame the son of Tun Abdul Razak Hussein for this narrow defeat.

This sounds like a proxy war between two dead one-time Malaysian Prime Ministers versus one still alive one-time Prime Minister.

Tengku Abdul Rahman did not like Tun Dr Mahathir. In fact, that is putting it mildly. Tengku Rahman actually hated Tun Dr Mahathir and he once said that Umno would perish at the hands of Tun Dr Mahathir.

And that hatred is mutual. Tun Dr Mahathir played a prominent role in Tengku Rahman’s ouster that saw Tun Razak take over as Prime Minister in 1970. Tun Razak then appointed Tun Dr. Ismail Abdul Rahman as his Deputy and when Tun Dr Ismail died in 1973 Tun Hussein took over.

When Tun Razak died in 1976, Tun Hussein took over as Prime Minister and he reluctantly appointed Tun Dr Mahathir as his Deputy -- because of pressure from the party -- when he would rather have appointed Tun Muhammad Ghazali Shafie as the Deputy instead.

And once Tun Dr Mahathir became the Deputy he made his move to oust Tun Hussein and took over as Prime Minister in 1981.

Since the 1950s Umno has seen power struggles for the top two positions.

First Onn Ja'afar was ousted. Then Tengku Rahman was ousted. Then Tun Razak died before he could be ousted, as did Tun Dr Ismail. Then Tun Ghazali was ousted. Then Hussein Onn was ousted. Then Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Tun Musa Hitam were ousted. Then Tun Abdul Ghafar Baba was ousted. Then Anwar Ibrahim was ousted. Then Tun Dr Mahathir was ousted. Finally, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was ousted.

The only way you could avoid being ousted was to die in office like Tun Razak and Tun Dr Ismail.

So what was the just-concluded Umno party election all about? Was it about bringing change to Umno? Certainly not! It is about who is going to take over as Prime Minister once the son of Tun Razak is forced out of office. Is it going to be the son of Tun Hussein Onn or the son of Tun Dr Mahathir? And he who wins the Umno Vice-Presidency can then prepare himself to take on the Deputy Presidency and from thereon the Presidency of Umno, which also means the Prime Ministership of Malaysia.

So the son of Tun Dr Mahathir did not make the Vice-Presidency. The son of Tun Hussein did. Hence the son of Tun Hussein and not the son of Tun Dr Mahathir would have a better shot at the number two slot -- and thereafter the number one slot.

It is about the son of which ex-Prime Minister will take over once the son of another ex-Prime Minister is successfully ousted from power. This is what the just-concluded Umno party election was all about.

And that man who aspires to take over must be seen as more Malay and more Islamic than his opponents. And has Umno’s history not shown that liberals eventually get ousted in favour of hardliners?

Umno can’t change, say some liberals. Of course Umno can’t change. If Umno does change then the top leaders would get ousted. But will Umno soon become extinct if it does not change? I fear not. I fear that PAS may become extinct instead -- unless it changes course and becomes more Islamic than Umno.

The animal called Umno is about Malay and Muslim supremacy. And unless Najib sees this he would soon join the long list of top Umno leaders who eventually get kicked out.

What happened yesterday was that the Malays have sent the top party leadership a message that Umno is about Malay political power and that there must be no compromise on this matter. And the only way that PAS is going to remain relevant is to become more radical than Umno. That is what yesterday’s Umno party election means.

Welcome to the realm of Malay politics.

Hidup Umno! Hidup Melayu! Hidup Islam!

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Umno can’t change, will soon become extinct, says former NST chief editor

Jennifer Gomez, The Malaysian Insider

Umno is unable to bring change and just like the dodo bird, will soon become extinct, writes the former group chief editor of Umno-controlled New Straits Times.

The analogy of the now-extinct bird species from Mauritius was made by Datuk A. Kadir Jasin in his latest blog posting.

He writes that whether there were 2,000 or 140,000 delegates who took part in the just-concluded Umno polls, it is obvious that the party could not make the leap forward as it could not elect a fresh line-up of future leaders.

For Kadir, the only consolation in the Umno vice-presidential race is that those who were accused of being involved in money politics previously have been rejected.

According to Kadir, while the status quo for the VP line-up was a good sign for Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the same could not be said for the party. This is because it could not vote in a new generation of leaders except for a few who made it to the supreme council.

Re-elected vice-president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's big win also puts him as the third in line to succession in Umno, after Najib and his deputy Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

As such, Kadir does not want to discount the possibility that Ahmad Zahid, who is the Home Minister, could turn from being a trusted ally to challenger for the top post.

He notes that Ahmad Zahid’s stern stance on crime and national security differs from Najib's liberal image.

Ahmad Zahid's approach has steered clear from Najib's liberalism, something which Malays and Umno members shun, Kadir adds.

Kadir, a loyalist of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, then takes a swipe at Najib for abolishing preventive laws such as the Internal Security Act and Emergency Ordinance, which he says resulted in a spike in crime.

He says there is the possibility of a new alliance between Ahmad Zahid and re-elected Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin to further the former’s political ambitions.

Khairy, explains Kadir, can ensure Ahmad Zahid receives more support being the Youth chief, adding that votes from the Youth wing would come in handy in the future.

The alliance would also be relevant given the duo's very different backgrounds and approaches. Ahmad Zahid could be the champion of the Malays and a local hero, while Khairy could be the savvy spokesman in the international arena.

Kadir says the fact that so many ministers and deputy ministers have been elected to the supreme council line-up means that they would not be able to speak out on behalf of the Malays.

He adds that only a handful in the line-up do not have high posts. And if these individuals could be sweet-talked, it would mean a total absence of independent voices for the Malays in the supreme council.

Kadir warns that there will now be only those who act as "yes men and women" to the party president.

He laments the lack of young blood in the party line-up, and points to the negative perception of the new generation towards Umno.

This, he writes, clearly distinguishes Umno from PKR, PAS and DAP which have many young leaders as well as a second echelon who are well-grounded in research and debate.