Umno’s choice
“The trouble is Umno is perceived as an arrogant and corrupt party. There are very few Umno leaders who are not seen as tainted by scandal,” one Umno lawmaker told The Malaysian Insider. “That is something very difficult for us to accept or to shake off.”
By Leslie Lau, The Malaysian Insider
When the 2,000-plus Umno delegates meet here in March for the party’s annual assembly and elections, they will be confronted with two choices.
They can vote in as their new leaders the few younger, progressive candidates or at least those who are not tainted by corruption and scandal.
Or they can plump for the same chauvinistic and corrupt leaders who eschew reforms and feel that the party just needs to be united and the Malays, in particular, will automatically back it.
Those who are planning to vote in the latter group would do well to consider what happened over the weekend in Kuala Terengganu when Pas and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) overcame their own problems to score a convincing win over Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN).
This was a more cohesive and united Umno campaign, especially when compared to the Permatang Pauh by-election, but despite having a party united behind the impending leadership of Datuk Seri Najib Razak, it lost.
“The trouble is Umno is perceived as an arrogant and corrupt party. There are very few Umno leaders who are not seen as tainted by scandal,” one Umno lawmaker told The Malaysian Insider. “That is something very difficult for us to accept or to shake off.”
While the choice for the next party president has already been made, Umno delegates still have a large field of candidates to choose from to fill the various party posts, from the deputy presidency downwards.
But signs so far suggest the delegates are still planning to cast their votes to the highest bidder.
Party insiders say large sums of money have been and are still being spent to attract votes, despite the best efforts of Umno’s top leadership in trying to curb vote-buying.
The Malaysian Insider understands a significant portion of funds meant for the Permatang Pauh and the Kuala Terengganu by-election were not utilised as some leaders holding the pursestrings had hoped to salt away the money for the party elections instead.
But if delegates vote for the kind of leadership perceived by the public to be corrupt and tainted by scandal, they will be perpetrating an image which has befallen the party and caused it to slowly but surely lose the support of ordinary Malaysians, as has been proven by its two electoral losses since its worst results ever in last March’s general election.
“They will be voting for the future of the party. So the question is, do they want the same old, or do they want some reforms,” said another senior Umno leader.
After the loss in Kuala Terengganu, the question of how Umno delegates vote will have an even more important bearing on whether voters, especially younger Malaysians, will support the party and BN.
A vote for reform could mean the party may have a fighting chance.
A vote for chauvinism and corruption may doom Umno, especially when confronted with the fact that, by the time the next general election is called, there could be between two and four million new voters deciding the political fate of the country.
