Bracing Umno for the Age of Disruption

It’s a tradition for the deputy president of Umno to officiate the Youth, Wanita and Puteri congress with a speech that serves as a guideline on the eve of the party’s general assemblies. Mohamad Hasan - or popularly known by his sobriquet “Tok Mat” - thus delivered a well-crafted and insightful speech to the delegates last night.

I was fortunate to attend the opening ceremony and met with high-spirited and energetic delegates of Umno Youth from all over the country.

In his speech, Tok Mat reminds all the delegates that in today's fast-paced world, politics is full of uncertainties and nothing is permanent. Pakatan Harapan politicians were very popular and well-liked prior to GE14, but now, those politicians who now hold high public posts are subjected to mockery and ridicule almost every day on social media.

I was particularly interested when Tok Mat coined the term “Melayu Maju” as an encouragement to Malays out there to empower themselves in all aspects of life. This is where he calls for Umno to revisit the party’s ideology and become the party of ideas that promotes the Malays to be more competitive, resilient and creative in this challenging era. For me, this is a strict contrast of leadership compared to Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s approach of frequently lamenting “Melayu malas” that is both condescending and uninspiring.

Umno is the grand old party of Malaysia’s politics. Its formation predates our country’s independence. This hierarchical party is full of tradition and has its own way of doing things. However, the old way of patronage politics and feudal mentality might not correlate with the current youths and millennials.

The Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019 to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 was passed with a total of 211 votes in Parliament in July 2019. This adds 1.5 million young voters to the electoral roll. Those who were born in 1997 and later, known as Generation Z, are the new voters that will determine the fate of a political party in a general election.

Therefore, Umno must not rely on the old playbook to tackle the hearts and minds of both the millennials and Generation Z. As cautioned by Tok Mat, Umno must be willing to learn and change or risk itself becoming an ancient institution.

This is where Umno must make use of science and technology to empower the party. In the near future, Big Data will play a huge role in determining voters’ mindsets and new, emerging voting trends.

The crux of the speech was where Tok Mat urged Umno Youth to formulate a “New Deal”, a set of honest aspirations and promises for the Malaysian people out there. Among the core aspects of this New Deal is that Umno must guarantee the safeguarding Malay interests without jeopardising the rights of other races and minority groups.

For me, this New Deal must also cover the pressing bread-and-butter issues for all Malaysians. With the soaring rate of unemployment and high cost of living, Umno must come out with a solid and workable plan to overcome Malaysia’s economic malaise and increase the people's income.

This is crucial as Umno cannot always expect support from the rakyat due to the weakness of Pakatan Harapan. The party itself must regain rakyat’s confidence as a reliable political party that is capable of governing Malaysia.

If all of this can be achieved, I believe it is not impossible for Umno to wrestle back Putrajaya in GE15. - Mkini