Umno has leaders, but no leadership

Greed, anger and foolishness must be killed off in order for the nation to start afresh.

COMMENT

By Aspan Alias

Muhyiddin Yassin’s absence from the assembly of 154 Umno division heads on Sunday has generated speculation that he is now in an atypical relationship with his boss, particularly over the issue of 1MDB. The Deputy President was among the 37 absent division heads, many of whom are from Johor and Sabah. But one other notable absentee was Kedah Menteri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir, a son of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, Najib’s sturdiest critic.

Muhyiddin has been uncomfortable with his boss for some time now, and gossip has been heard here and there that he has strong opinions over a lot of issues affecting the running of the government and party. He must have felt that Sunday’s meeting presented an opportunity to tell Najib, by his absence, that he did not like the manner in which the Prime Minister runs the government.

Concerning the 1MDB issue, Muhyiddin has called for a “serious investigation” by the Public Accounts Committee. He has defied the statement by Najib and the Cabinet that there was nothing wrong with 1MDB with a call for a “forensic audit” of the company, going back to 2009.

Muhyiddin knows the impact of his absence from Sunday’s assembly. He is by no means a novice in politics. He knows that his absence is of consequence to the ailing Umno leadership. Thus it’s not incorrect to say that his absence was intentional and purposeful.

Najib too is not that naïve. He certainly knows that something is brewing and that Muhyiddin will lead an insurrection if he can command enough support from among the 146,000-odd voting members in the next Umno elections. That was the reason why he left without facing the media and instead asked Ismail Sabri Yaacob to take his place at a brief press conference. Obviously, he could not find a better member of the Supreme Council to do that.

Ismail Sabri told the press not to read too much into Muhyiddin’s absence, saying the Deputy President had important engagements set earlier.

Anyhow, whatever the consequence of Muhyiddin’s absence, it is not going to change anything in Umno. Even if Muhyiddin were to succeed in toppling Najib in the coming party elections, Umno will remain feeble or even get weaker. Umno has been so neglected by previous leaders that there is a huge vacuum of leadership in the party.

What is needed in Umno is not a change of leaders, but a change in leadership. There is a difference between the two. Mahathir changed leaders one after another, but he didn’t address the absence of leadership. That is the reason that after his administration, Umno was saddled with leaders without leadership. There can be a change of leaders every other year, but replacing one who has no leadership qualities with another who is similarly handicapped will plunge the country into perpetual disorder.

As it is, Umno is already at its weakest point and every concerned member, if he is honest with himself, can see that the party is at risk of losing in the next general elections. A further split in the top leadership will only cause a deeper fracture and ultimately send Malaysia’s oldest political organisation into oblivion.

The only available choice for leaders and members of the party is to get together to find someone who can lead and get everyone together to start the nation afresh and bring about a new political ambience that we are sorely in need of.

The current leaders must be courageous enough to own up to their weaknesses and let others take the mantle to restart the nation. Obviously, this means some degree of sacrifice from everyone.

What are the sacrifices they need to offer? They must place Greed, Anger and Foolishness on the altar. These are the poisonous impulses that want us to succumb to their evil in order to obliterate us.

Aspan Alias is an FMT columnist.