What’s in a choice of candidate
Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah
For the eighth time since the last General Elections, we face a by-election. The Opposition has now won seven by-elections in a row in peninsular Malaysia. Umno has contested six and lost all six.
By now no one can doubt that the public dissatisfaction with BN that led to the loss of five states and the loss of its 2/3rds majority has not been reversed.
A cornerstone of that dissatisfaction is the perception that those in power are corrupt, and arrogant in their corruption. Hence when our leaders fielded a disbarred lawyer with a proven record of financial dishonesty, and then went on to brush aside all objections to their choice, they confirmed that perception. They sent the message that UMNO considers itself above common standards of decency.
Now one young Umno leader has been quoted as saying that the only criterion for the selection of candidates is that they can win. This is precisely the kind of short term thinking that keeps Umno and BN on the wrong side of history, going in reverse while the Malaysian public presses ahead with demands for greater accountability and transparency.
