Top Umno posts must be contested for sake of party, country

 

From Ibrahim M Ahmad

Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan’s statement that its Supreme Council has yet to decide whether the posts of party president and deputy president will be contested at its upcoming elections shows that party leaders are totally out of touch with the sentiments of the rakyat.

The question as to whether the top posts in the party ought to be contested should not even be up for discussion.

If Umno wishes to lead a democratically elected government – as it will surely want to do at the next general and state elections – it must first show itself to abide by basic democratic principles. That would mean being itself led by democratically elected officials.

Leaders who insist on remaining in office without being elected to the position are simply further alienating party members and the electorate by insisting that they have some divine right to hold on to power.

They also show themselves to be afraid of losing.

Those are not good images to project.

Umno cannot continue to deny that it is at its lowest point ever.

Under its current leadership, the party suffered widespread rejection at the recent 15th general election (GE15), securing only 26 parliamentary seats – its lowest tally ever.

In fact, the party’s rate of decline in the 21st century has been quite staggering.

Having won 109 out of 120 seats in 2004 (91%), Umno won 79 of 120 seats in 2008 (66%), 88 of 120 seats in 2013 (73%), and 54 of 120 seats in 2018 (45%), before ending up with a mere 26 out of 119 seats in 2022 (22%).

Those results tend to show that voters have already overwhelmingly rejected the leadership of president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and deputy president Mohamad Hasan.

A decision to maintain the duo without subjecting them to the party’s electoral process will show up the Supreme Council as acting against public sentiment.

To ordinary Malaysians, Zahid represents much of the problem.

Tainted by an ongoing corruption case surrounding the alleged misuse of funds belonging to his Yayasan Akalbudi foundation, for which his defence has already been called, Zahid’s leadership is widely seen as one of the main reasons why Umno lost badly at the recent polls.

In fact, Zahid suffered a large scale rejection even in his own constituency of Bagan Datuk, retaining the seat he has held since 1995 by only a razor-thin majority of 348, less than 1% of the 41,856 votes cast.

Faced with such bad results, any leader would have been expected to step aside to make way for new leadership. Zahid, however, did not do that.

There can be no doubt that since GE15, Zahid has done well for the party. Despite stiff opposition internally, he has successfully kept the party in government, a move which will ensure that it remains relevant and in the public eye for the next five years.

He has also done the nation a great service by keeping Muhyiddin Yassin’s right-wing Perikatan Nasional out of government, with Barisan Nasional’s 30 seats crucial in enabling Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan to secure a simple majority on the floor of the Dewan Rakyat.

Yet, despite his hard work which has brought short-term benefits to the party, the polling numbers do not lie, and many consider Zahid’s long-term position as party chief untenable, arguing that the party risks undoing all his good work by stifling the democratic processes enshrined in its constitution.

A significant number in the party are of the opinion that a Zahid-led Umno is not what Malaysia wants or the party needs at this critical point in time.

They believe that a finding of guilt in his on-going trial will alienate both Malay and non-Malay support even more, which may result in the party being wiped out completely by the next general election.

The decision whether to allow contests for the president’s and deputy’s posts is not for Umno’s Supreme Council to determine.

The right to elect leaders to these posts is set out in the party’s constitution. The Supreme Council cannot take that right away from party delegates by simply making the posts non-contestable. Such Mahathir era edicts have no place in 21st century Malaysia.

Party elections must see the top two posts contested.

If Zahid and Tok Mat contest and win, they can legitimately claim to be the party’s democratically elected leaders. The party as a collective then stands or falls by the success or failure of the leaders of its delegates’ own choosing.

However, if the Supreme Council blocks contests, it runs the risk of acting against the wishes of party members and ignoring the clear sentiment of the rakyat. Supreme Council members will have no one to blame but themselves if the party is decimated at the next general election.

For Umno to stand a chance of coming back strongly in 2027 or whenever the next general election is called, the party leadership must be brave enough to make the right decision now.
Zahid and Mohamad must themselves be brave enough to put their respective fates in the hands of party delegates.

Umno has already postponed its party elections in a bid to maintain unity in the lead up to GE15. That decision appears not to have borne much fruit. Further delaying a vote to determine its top leaders going forward may well end up destroying the party.

The party is in dire need of rejuvenation. Umno leaders must put aside self-interest and fear once and for all for the party’s own sake and in the best interests of the country. - FMT

Ibrahim M Ahmad is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.