BN infighting is just beginning
The Alliance/BN is the path to power for Umno. It cannot hope to go it alone. At present, the party commands only a third of the seats in Parliament. Its reliance on the Sabahans and Sarawakians is therefore crucial, and will continue to grow.
Ooi Kee Beng, The Malaysian Insider
Aftershocks of the dismal showing by Malaysia’s ruling coalition in last year’s general election continue to reverberate through the political landscape. Slowly but steadily, structural reforms are becoming undeniable.
It is now not so much about whether the Barisan Nasional (BN) will reform itself or not, but whether it can stay whole during its painful transformation.
What phoenix — or phoenixes — will rise when the dust settles is the key question? What will never rise again?
The former president of the dominant Umno, former premier Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, resigned in March; just as Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting, then president of the second most important party, the MCA, had done in October last year. This eased internal tensions for a while in those parties.
The presidents of other major BN members, such as Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon of Gerakan and Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu of the MIC have chosen to stay put. This has minimised chances for the parties to regain ground support.
The fact that Koh was made a senator and then minister in the Prime Minister’s Department by the new Umno president, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and not Samy Vellu, has added to the bad blood between the component parties.
Whatever the case though, both Gerakan and MIC have not been able to regain strength from any direction.
The same holds true for the MCA as well.
Recent developments show that its internal struggles are far from over. The fact that neither the MCA nor any of BN’s parties on the peninsula has been able to achieve any noteworthy increase in popularity over the last 18 months is putting pressure on both old and new party members alike.
Even where the have-beens did leave, not enough space has been created for the many up-and-coming hopefuls to unite in optimism. More aspirants to power need to be sacrificed.
