Umno must make sure its numbers add up
The party may claim a membership comprising nearly half the peninsula’s Malay population, writes ZUBAIDAH ABU BAKAR, but until its rolls are cleaned there’s no telling what the truth is
Senior Umno leaders privately agree that the number of “genuine” members is far fewer than three million, as it was a common practice at branch level in the past for young people leaving their villages to seek greener pastures as Umno members to be registered without their consent.
ZUBAIDAH ABU BAKAR, NST
UMNO, the largest political party in Malaysia and a founding member of Barisan Nasional, boasts a membership of three million.
The figures party leaders most frequently cite are between 3.2 million and 3.5 million (some 40 per cent of the Malay population in the peninsula), although the “actual members” — those who remain committed to Umno’s struggle — remain a mystery.
These numbers may be correct on paper, but far off the mark in reality.
Umno is well aware that members abandoned the party in droves after 1998, either to join Umno’s splinters Parti Islam SeMalaysia (Pas) and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) or to remain apolitical, following the sacking of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as deputy prime minister and deputy Umno president.
In 2001, Pas leaders were quoted as saying the party was registering 40,000 new members a month, mostly among those who had left Umno. It is not known how far such claims are true, but the 2008 general election and subsequent by-elections indicated a great many registered Umno members voting for the opposition.
Umno was snubbed when only 2.4 million voters chose its candidates at the last national polls, reducing its parliamentary strength by 30 to 79 MPs.
Senior Umno leaders privately agree that the number of “genuine” members is far fewer than three million, as it was a common practice at branch level in the past for young people leaving their villages to seek greener pastures as Umno members to be registered without their consent.
There have been cases of those registered also being members of other political parties by choice; this was one of the reasons Umno has been miscalculating its chances of electoral victory.
The problem is compounded by the inability of branch leaders to detect defectors, especially those who live and work in cities and towns but are registered as members at branches in their home states.
The once-common practice of Umno division leaders paying members’ annual subscription fees, now abolished with the recent amendments to the party’s constitution, could be one reason why the names of those who had left the party are still on the lists.
Many top party leaders still believe that a massive membership would make the party strong, as the numbers alone could help the party stand tall in any election. They keep encouraging grassroots leaders to carry out membership drives and set yearly targets. Umno divisions have been asked to register as many Malays as possible to strengthen the party by numbers.
But it is a myth that a large membership means strength. Umno now has nearly 20,000 branches, but many branches, particularly of the Youth and Puteri wings, find it hard to find quorums for their annual general meetings because their members reside elsewhere.
Many think the gigantic membership list is indeed a liability for Umno today. The more branches a division has, the more infighting there will be. There are usually messy rivalries for branch leaderships, because the position carries with it the chairmanship of village development and security committees; a powerful position at the village level.
Now, once again, Umno says it wants to clean up its membership list, deleting the names of members who have died, left the party, relocated, or cannot be traced.
Party vice-president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal says the clean-up will be done within a year, after which the party will embark on a membership drive to attract more professionals and youths.
The exercise has become all the more necessary with Umno’s constitutional amendments abolishing annual fees for members, as approved by the Registrar of Societies on Nov 10. As such, said party president Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Umno would have to ensure all members were genuine.
Having phantom members voting in party elections, which will henceforth involve up to 145,000 members and not just 2,500 delegates as before, could result Umno being declared illegal. That’s the last thing the party would want, after the bitter experience restoring itself as Umno Baru following the 1988 court declaration that it was illegal.
Today, it is seeking the most effective way to clean its membership lists, for which it will need the cooperation of its 191 divisions and their branches. The party tried to update its membership lists in 2005, to a lukewarm response from many branches in returning the forms to their respective divisions.
Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor also asked branches to vet their membership lists and submit updated ones to party headquarters after Umno members did not vote for the party’s candidate in the Permatang Pauh by-election in August last year. Obviously, that did not help much.
There were supposedly 90,800 Umno members in Permatang Pauh but only 10,700 voted, giving a thumping victory to Anwar, who polled 31,195 votes to the 15,524 obtained by BN’s Datuk Arif Shah Omar Shah of Umno.
Anwar’s majority of 15,671 votes was bigger than that obtained by his wife, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, in the March 2008 general election.
Political analysts were convinced that Anwar’s winning votes came from registered Umno members as well, the party’s branches in the Permatang Pauh division existed only in name, and their members were indeed defectors.
Permatang Pauh is not the only place where membership does not reflect support. There are other divisions, particularly in states that have fallen to Pakatan Rakyat. Umno has to address these problems or continue to miscalculate its support.
