Friday, May 9, 2008

the umno saga- part 1.

great minds think alike. so do mediocre ones.
what do mukhriz mahathir, fuad zarkashi and syed ali from cheras have in common? the answer is they share the same assumption that if power is transferred to najib tun razak, umno's problems will be solved. because many link their future with Dato Najib, everyone is pressing for his elevation to PM.
i want to get this off my chest quickly. the conferment of a Saviour's role on Najib may perhaps be an accolade he ill deserves. the only extraordinary quality that najib has is his genetic origins. all other things, commitment to UMNO, country, his capabilities and integrity are all suspect. lets get out of this moronic adulation of the tun razak name. lets judge a person on his merits- commitment, capabilities, integrity and determination. if he has any other surname, he would have been history long ago. people are mesmerised by their romanticised memory of tun razak. this was seized upon and exploited sometime ago when some bozos initiated a seminar called legasi tun razak. it was nothing but a mere PR exercise to associate pak lah with the greatness of Tun Razak. it was also an elaborate scheme to balance the popularity of Tun Mahathir. with regards to Najib, launching a program in Bera, Pahang, there was a caustic photo of him depressing a demolition contraption! what a blast! .
the common denominator that binds the persons we named above is an assumption. we at once realise that this is a tenuous assumption. it assumes that najib has the wherewithal to solve umno's problems. unfortunately he does not. Najib is untrustworthy( remember he ditched Tengku Razaleigh?), his morals are suspect and his religion, farcical. UMNO still clings to the same old tradition that it's fate hinges and depends on one person. this is the root of UMNO's problems. because it has no ideology, UMNO's fortunes is made to depend on the quality of the leadership. this dependence can have unpredictable consequences.

UMNO's problems are C4ored!
umno's problems exploded to the surface on the eight of march. the intensity of the explosion can no longer be measured on the richter scale. there was all round condemnation on Pak Lah's leadership. right or wrong, the malays and the people faulted UMNO and its leadership and the government for various ills in the country. But the losses UMNO suffered were not caused by Pak Lah alone. UMNO deserves the losses because the entire leadership is burdened with personal liabilities. Najib with his guilty-by-association stigma in the various shady deals- the purchase of submarines, sukhoi fighter planes, the altantuya murder. we carried his baggage filled with many skeletons into the elections, not withstanding the blinkered vision of the voters in Pekan. last year in parliament, the deputy defense minister then, termed the kickbacks as commissions. the policeman who is paid RM 500 is corrupt. the minister receiving 500 million obtains a commission. commission is allowable. corruption is punishable. people forget last year, inside parliament there was indisputable admission that commissions were paid. this year around, the defense minister who is also the deputy PM, said there was no commission. obviously, the period of more than a year, allowed the ministry of defense to do a forensic cleaning up.
many others are plague with personal diseases that undermined UMNO to the core. nazri the 'brutal mouth' aziz has his own taxi permit issues; rafidah 'miss piggy' aziz has her AP issues. the man implicated in the Lingam Tapes is appointed UMNO SECGEn!.

self interest before all.
when UMNO bigwigs meet up, they do not discuss UMNO. they discussed what businesses they can get. no one in UMNO dares speak up because each is motivated by personal interests. i was told in a meeting among the more vocal UMNO leaders such as the farcical arab from cheras, the monkeyish deputy permanent chairman, the 6 million dollar man from perak among others each one was vocal about UMNO's ills. when each of them was asked to be the spokesman to talk to the top leadership, each one declined. the Nth generation Arab from cheras's beef is with the ketua perhubungan UMNO selangor, Dato Zulhasnan. the 6 million dollar man is looking for business opportunities. the deputy permanent chairman was only posturing as a brave soul. when it comes to the crunch everyone crumbles.
invasive laser surgery.
UMNO's problems can no longer be eliminated using butter knives. the weapon of choice is no longer the Keris either, but the explosive C4 that is used to blow up buildings, rock surfaces and so on. of course the term C4 is made infamous in the brutal murder of the mongolian altantuya. the cure for UMNO's ills require invasive laser surgery by a team of skilled surgeons. those who cant even hold a keris properly need not apply.
spontaneity vs calculation.
It would be a fatal mistake to regard the way the rakyat voted on the 8th of march, as a spontaneous rejection by them. it wasn't a knee jerk reaction by the people. it was a calculated decision. the grave mistake made by UMNO is to regard voters as dumb blondes. in the famous words of a British judge, the common man is now the man riding the clapham omnibus. or in the malaysian context, the common man is the man riding the srijaya or metro bus in KL. they do read in between the lines and are sufficiently well informed. voters are no longer idiots as UMNO lackeys assumed. they must have mulled over issues and engaged in lively debates in many tete-a-tete in the ubiquitous kopi tiams around the nation. by that we mean, people do no not just wake up in the morning of the 8th of march and decide in an instant not to vote umno. umno's problems have a much deeper origin.

UMNO deserve to lose?
umno can only deserve what it got in the recent elections. as soon as our leadership is less than honest and not above board in everything they do, as soon as our leadership is filled with people who are more interested in pursuing their own selfish future instead of the public good, umno deserves to be out. as soon as our leadership is unequal in its job for want of integrity, capabilities, skills relating to people, UMNO is out. and relating to people is more than just back slapping and exchanging pornographic jokes. it is also the conduct of one's behavior with decorum among the public because everything now is under public scrutiny. you dont go around pinching promoter's bottom and later asked the poor lady to claim it is just a misunderstanding.
the root of UMNO's problems.
the problem is, UMNO is rotten to the core. the whole structure is festered with cancerous gangrene. imagine for a moment you wish to become a ketua cawangan. the umno constitution says you can form a branch with at least 50 members. so if you want to form a new branch you will likely gather around you like minded persons. those who share the same interests. next, is the problem of maintaining support. to keep your flock in line, you will need to spend money. you therefore needed to find money to grease your supporters palms. to become a ketua cawangan is an expensive affair and that bars men of straw. you will need to spend some money winning allegiances and promises of support. you then become a ketua cawangan. once you have arrived, you will look at ways to secure some contracts. if that is not so easy, you will harbour hopes to be appointed a ketua kampung heading the JKKK. you will then initiate demands that all public works in your kampung must be done through the JKKK. the JKKK then becomes a sort of toll collecting station. or more precisely an institutionalised rent seeking entity. lets say you manage to secure from the pembangunan luar bandar(PLB) a section in the pejabat daerah, a budget of RM20,000 to repair a school building. you will demand the contractor to pay this and that. the contractor in turn will find ways to cut corners and finally does some repair costing him RM3000. but he bills the PLB for RM20,000. kampung folks end up with mediocre work believing the value is 20k. if you are a kampung citizen , you end up suckered.
next you want to move up to become a jawatankuasa bahagian. moving up you picture yourself hobnobbing with party leaders. if your ketua bahagian happens to be the deputy prime minster, living under his shadow is sufficient in your estimation to be within his earshot. again you need to spend larger amount of monies to secure allegiances and support. once becoming a jawatankuasa bahagian, you do not give two hoots of serving the rakyat. you are more intent in securing as much business benefits as possible. you spend inordinate amount of time apple polishing your boss, licking his hands and parts of his anatomy where the sun does not shine. you damn the others asking them to fly kites. another round of money flow.
your appetite is whetted. if you are ketua bahagian, you aspire to become a member of the highest policy making body in UMNO, the MKT. you want to fight for one of the 25 places. but this time you need to spend more to win allegiances and promises from the whole country. if you are already a ketua bahagian, you are likely to be a wakil rakyat already or an ahli parlimen. you have your businesses interests all over the place. you will use these resources to buy votes from delegates. the delegates from Sabah will utter the magical words- tatap pasti ba. now, imagine further if one wants to secure the posts of vice presidents, deputy president or even president. millions of money change hands. each position can be bought at a certain price. Milton Friedman was right: MV=PT.

this means the whole system is rotten to the core. it requires a complete overhaul of the umno structure. secondly, it involes a new ideological content that inspires the malays.

therefore, can najib do the impossible? by alluding that najib is capable of solving umno's problems, you are imputing a prowess that he perhaps does not fully deserve and i will tell you why. UMNO's problems are so gargantuan that it requires a strong and assertive leadership to overhaul the system. unfortunately, assertiveness and courage are not Najib's forte. the overhauling of the system requires an assertive and determined leader. these qualities seem to be absent from najib's person. it also requires a leader that has UMNO's interests as the primary and overriding interest. unfortunately, UMNO's interest is far from Najib's mind despite his posturings.

saving UMNO.
almost everyone is united in their belief that abdullah badawi must shoulder the primary responsibility for umno's devastating losses. But wait!- you can hear some umno apparatchiks already screaming thier heads off- we did not lose. who says we lost?. lets see the facts. UMNO contested 109 parliamentary seats. it won only 79 and lost 30. is that a win? UMNO has 3.5 million members. it boasts this very often. in the 12th general elections umno candidates secured only 2.4 million votes. this means that 1.1 million umno members did not vote for UMNO candidates. again, this clearly shows UMNO has lost the confidence of the malays. UMNO lost 5 states to the opposition party. UMNO has clearly lost, my friend. the malays as a whole also lost if you equate UMNO as Malay and vice versa. if you however reject the equation, then, the fact emerges that while UMNO lost, the Malays are not worse off. because the seats that UMNO lost were won by malay candiates from the opposition parties.
clearly now UMNO has two seemingly formidable problems. internally, UMNO is rotten to the core. externally, malay voters are rejecting UMNO. how can UMNO reorganise itself and at the same time win the confidence of the malays and now at the same time, non malays?