How old is Umno anyway?
The Registrar of Societies was faced with a dilemma. They had received two overlapping applications to register new parties. One was called Umno Malaysia and the other one, the application that came in later, was called Umno Baru.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
First, listen to this new Umno song that they somehow did not want to sing at the ongoing 59th Umno General Assembly (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71Xrsq4aKp0)
Okay, now that you have relished that song (and if you didn’t understand the lyrics then I can’t help you ……. that is what happens when you fight for science and maths to be taught in English) let us discuss the 59th Umno Assembly.
The 59th Umno Assembly is actually for last year, 2008, not for this year, 2009. This means, if the assembly were, again, held towards the end of this year, the 2009 assembly would be the 60th.
Now, at this point, you may be asking: how come if the assembly were to be held, again, later this year, it should be the 60th? If the Umno assemblies are held once every year, this would mean the party is 60 years old. And that means Umno was formed 60 years ago today, in 1949,
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Umno was formed in 1988. That means the assembly later this year should be the 21st and not the 60th. And the ongoing assembly should be the 20th, not the 59th. Then we have to minus the number of assemblies that they missed. I can’t remember how many assemblies they missed over the years (I think it was three). But whatever it is, the ongoing assembly is not the 20th and the one at the end of this year — if they hold another one at the end of this year, that is — would not be the 21st.
Now can you see what happens when they shift from teaching maths from Bahasa Malaysia to English and then to Bahasa Malaysia again? Total chaos breaks out and they can no longer even calculate how many assemblies they have had.
Read my lips. Umno was formed in 1988, not in 1946 like they claim. Okay, there was an earlier Umno registered in 1946, which was deregistered in 1988. But then they tried to register another Umno called Umno Malaysia. The people behind the attempt to register the new Umno were ex-Prime Ministers and Umno leaders such as Tunku Abdul Rahman, Hussein Onn and so on.
When those who walk in the corridors of power found out that the veteran leaders of Umno were attempting to register a new Umno called Umno Malaysia, they too submitted an application to register a new Umno, which they called Umno Baru.
The Registrar of Societies was faced with a dilemma. They had received two overlapping applications to register new parties. One was called Umno Malaysia and the other one, the application that came in later, was called Umno Baru. The Registrar could not register two parties with almost the same names, even though one was called Umno Malaysia and the other Umno Baru. There was no problem with them using the ‘Umno’ name as the original Umno registered in 1946 had already been deregistered and therefore the name was ‘free’. So the ‘Umno’ name could be used. But the Registrar could approve only one Umno, not both.
The Registrar then did the correct thing in the spirit of first-pass-the-post or first-come-first-serve. Since the Umno Malaysia application was the first application and the Umno Baru application came later, the Registrar approved Umno Baru and rejected Umno Malaysia.
Hold on! Should it not have been Umno Malaysia that should be approved and Umno Baru that should be rejected, instead of the other way around? Well, never mind, they must have made an honest mistake. What happened was that the later application (Umno Baru) was approved while the earlier one (Umno Malaysia) was rejected on grounds they can’t approve two parties using the same ‘Umno’ name.
Then something very strange happened, other than the Registrar approving the later application and rejecting the earlier one. The ‘Baru’ in the ‘Umno Baru’ name mysteriously disappeared and, today, Umno Baru is known as just Umno.
Hmm…..no wonder they are confused about how many assemblies they have had. They probably forgot that Umno was registered in 1988 and not 1946 because the Umno of 1988 has the same name as the Umno of 1946. I suppose this is another honest mistake and they never intended to mislead the public. And this honest mistake resulted in them holding the 59th Umno General Assembly this year instead of the 20th (or actually the 17th if you consider they missed three assemblies along the way).
Many say Umno needs to change. Rafidah Aziz disagrees with this view and argues that it is not Umno that needs to change but the members who must change. Others, on the other hand, say that the leaders are the ones who need to change.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Actually, contrary to what everyone is saying, Umno has changed. The only problem is no one seems to have noticed. Umno has not only changed but has closed down and the new Umno is not the old Umno, in spite of them calling the 17th, or 20th, general assembly the 59th. What we have today is a totally new Umno that is only 21 years old and not the original Umno that is 63 years old, as many are being led to believe.
One thing that Malaysians do not understand is that anyone who opposes Umno is a traitor to Malaysia. Yes, that’s right. If you oppose Umno you are opposing Malaysia. And that makes you a traitor. “I am Malaysia and Malaysia is me,” is what Umno people believe. You oppose me then you oppose Malaysia. It’s as simple as that. This is Umno logic par excellence.
And those who divide the Malays are traitors to the Malay race, is another Umno logic. Malays must be united, under Umno of course. Malays can be united. They can be united with the Chinese and Indians. Or they can be united with other Malays. But as long as they are united outside Umno then they are not considered united yet.
Those who unite Malays with other Malays, or unite Malays with the Chinese and Indians, but they do so outside Umno and within the opposition, are considered traitors to the Malay race. Unity is only unity if all are united under the banner of Umno. That is the long and short of it all.
How, you may ask, is this logical? Don’t ask me. I am not the one asking for maths and science to be taught in Bahasa Melayu and then in English and then in Bahasa Kebangsaan and then in English and then in Bahasa Baku and then in English and then in Bahasa Malaysia and then……….God, how many Malay languages do we have anyway? No wonder Umno is bloody confused.
1) Assembly is last year’s meeting, so ‘2008’ is right
ALL the banners on the 59th Umno general assembly that will start from today say “Umno General Assembly 2008”.
This had caused confusion among many people, and some had even thought that Umno headquarters had made a mistake with the year stated on the banners.
In fact, it was not a mistake as the current meeting is actually the general assembly that was supposed to have been held last year.
Under the Societies Act, all political parties are required to hold their annual general meeting.
However, for Umno, the general assembly scheduled for the end of December last year had to be postponed to today to accommodate the leadership transition plan between Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak.
Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said people should not read too much into the matter.
“This is just a formality. This meeting is for last year. We will have another general assembly for this year at the end of the year,” he added. (The Star, 25 March 2009)
2) Leaders should change and be willing to accept criticism
Leaders should be willing to change and accept criticism if they want to succeed in leading their respective organisations, Sarawak United People's Party organising secretary Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui said.
He said that although the principles might lead to some polemics among members, they were the necessary in moulding credible leaders.
"The call for change is voiced out at the right time and I am confident that this will bring greater benefit to the party as a whole," he said when commenting on Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's speech at the joint opening of the Wanita Umno, Umno Youth and Puteri Umno general assemblies at the Putra World Trade Centre here Wednesday night (25 March).
Chin said Umno, as the backbone of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN), was making a paradigm shift to consolidate its position.
Meanwhile Liberal Democratic Party Youth chief Chin Shu Ying described Najib address as "a very good speech" in which the incoming Umno president outlined the changes in store for the party. (Bernama, 25 March 2009)
3) UMNO Youth vows to take on traitors
The Umno Youth Wednesday vowed to fight and defeat dirty politicking and defend the country's sovereignty from being undermined by what the movement chief Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein described as traitors.
Hishammuddin said the movement would defend the rule of law, the rights and privileges of the Malays and bumiputera, the sanctity of Islam and the institution of the Malay rulers.
"We will not allow these pillars to be uprooted in this beloved homeland of ours," he said in his keynote address at the Umno Youth General Assembly here Wednesday.
Hishammuddin did not name any individual whom he labelled as traitor but said that such a person was willing to do anything, including sowing seeds of discontent, colluding with the enemies and denying the rights of his own race for the sake of gaining power.
"The person is willing to degrade his own country at various forums worldwide and prepared to ridicule the rulers' institution and everyone else merely to satisfy his desire," he said. (Bernama, 25 March 2009)
4) Rafidah: It's members, not UMNO, that need to change
The re-branding of Umno does not involve just the changing of its label or outlook but must also be accompanied with efforts to scrutinise and improve its contents, namely the party members and leaders themselves, said Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz.
The Wanita Umno chief said: "Actually, it's not Umno that needs to change. There's nothing wrong with the party that has become the umbrella for the Malays and championed their cause for more than 62 years.
"It is the Umno members themselves who need to change and undergo the process of transformation," she said when delivering the policy speech at the Wanita Umno general assembly, here Wednesday (25 March).
Rafidah said too many people were now stressing on the need for the party to change in order to be relevant and accepted by the people, especially the younger generation.
She also reminded Umno members not to repeat the 1987 incident where intense contest for the party president's post had led to money politics coming into play and the party being split into cliques. (Bernama, 25 March 2009)
