Umno wary of the enemy within

ARCHIVES 2009

By adminK On Jan 4, 2009

It is the collection of individuals – Umno members – who are contesting for positions in the party elections in March, and their agents and runners. If these men and women keep their eyes as focused on the party polls as they did during the Permatang Pauh by-election, then Umno’s Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh will come out second best on Jan 17.

THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER

The biggest obstacle to Umno retaining the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary constituency seat is not Abdul Wahid Endut, the charismatic candidate of Parti Islam SeMalaysia (Pas).

Not even the fickleness of the Chinese voters, who make up 10.94 per cent of the 80,325-strong electorate, presents a real challenge.

During the Permatang Pauh campaign in August, the who’s who of the party led the charge but anecdotal evidence suggests that they were more interested in obtaining nominations and support for party elections.

Some of these bigwigs were content to sit in their hotel rooms and meet a steady stream of party members who had descended on the constituency from all over Malaysia.

At that point, party elections were scheduled for December. Since then, Umno has delayed the polls till late March in line with the transition of power plan which will see Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi step down in favour of Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim of PKR won the Permatang Pauh by-election by a yawning margin.

Following the sound defeat, Umno conducted a series of post-mortems. In every study, it was noted that while Umno heavyweights and members flooded Permatang Pauh, many of them were more interested in campaigning for party positions.

Others preferred to stay in cliques with party members from their own states, and were ineffective in making any inroads with the local population.

Najib, who will lead the party machinery in the Kuala Terengganu by-election, knows the pitfalls. In an interview with Mingguan Malaysia, he noted that clear directives had been given to candidates against using the by-election to fish for votes for the party elections.

Those contesting party positions have been given specific areas to look after. This move is intended to prevent them from going around the whole constituency canvassing for support from Umno members.

“Their main focus has to be the voters in Kuala Terengganu,” he said.

Najib also said that, unlike Permatang Pauh, the local party machinery will have to be the prime movers, with outside help only providing back-up services.

Traditionally, every state Umno will rent a house in the constituency and send a strong delegation. But this approach has been counter-productive.

Instead of moving about and meeting voters, the party members tend to hang around their own houses and spend most of the campaign period in the company of their comrades from the same state.

In Kuala Terengganu, Najib said, there would be a change to this “rumah negeri’’ approach.

During the interview, he was confident that Barisan Nasional would retain the constituency, which fell vacant with the death of BN’s Datuk Razali Ismail.

This confidence is anchored in the belief that Umno is regaining its poise after months of uncertainty.

In contrast, not a day seems to pass without a minor flare up in the nascent Pakatan Rakyat coalition.

Pas insiders concede the party’s preparation for the by-election has been less than perfect, with the choice of candidate being made 10 days after BN unveiled Wan Ahmad Farid as its candidate, a delay caused by internal strife.

Still, Pas officials expect everyone to close ranks and fight to wrest control of the constituency from Umno.

Their most potent weapon: Umno members campaigning for party positions.

“We expect Umno members to be more interested in campaigning for the party elections,” said a party insider, who acknowledged that the stakes were also high for Pas and Pakatan Rakyat.

“If we lose, Pakatan Rakyat will lose a lot of momentum,” he said.