Reject emotions in bid to retake power, Umno told

All options, including turning multiracial, must be considered, says a candidate for Umno Youth vice-chief.

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PETALING JAYA: A candidate for one of Umno Youth’s top posts has urged the party to be open-minded in its search for ways to gain the trust of non-Malays so that it can return to power.

The party must consider all available options, such as becoming multiracial, said Shahril Hamdan, who is eyeing the post of vice-chief in the youth wing, which he currently serves as information chief.

He said the one objective Umno must not veer from was to be the governing party again, even if it meant having to go through several elections. This called for the rejection of emotional responses, he added.

“As long as an option doesn’t result in a split in our ranks and can take us to victory, then it should be considered,” he told FMT.

“I’m clear on Umno’s struggles for the nation, race and religion, but I’m also pragmatic. The best way to realise the aims of our struggle is to be in power.”

He acknowledged that any move to open Umno’s membership to non-Malays would be fraught with challenges, citing the failure of such an enterprise by the party’s founder, Onn Jaafar.

However, he added, if party members were closed to the idea from the get-go, it would mean that Umno wasn’t yet bold enough to confront tough questions. He said such courage was essential in contemporary politics.

He also spoke of the possibility of reinventing Barisan Nasional (BN).

“Even if Umno remains for Malays only, we have to find a formula to win the support of non-Malays,” he said.

“If we put 100% of our focus on the Malays and blame MCA, MIC and other BN components for our defeat, we may feel good about ourselves, and strong, but we’ll never regain power.

“However we move forward, we must ensure that we win the support of the non-Malays. It may not be opening up Umno, but what is sure is that the status quo where BN is concerned cannot be maintained.”

Asked if he thought Malaysians had moved beyond racial politics, he said his initial assessment was that the Malays still wanted Malay leadership, whether in the form of a Malay party like Umno or PPBM, or a Malay-led multiracial party like PKR.

He noted that PPBM won only 12 federal seats in the recent general election, but said its dominance was clear not only in the number of key Cabinet posts given to its members but also in its control of the Johor and Perak governments.

“As for PKR, you can see that all the top leaders are Malays, and I think Malays will win the top posts when the party has its election.” -FMT