The next General Elections: be careful with what you wish
Everyone is talking about the next general elections nowadays. PM Najib is also eager to hold an election. Incoming PMs are always eager to have a new mandate. So that he can form a new team. Members associated with the old team are worried. Those who have overstayed are also jittery. Those tainted with all sort of allegations are feverishly anxious. Those thinking it’s their time to step up are busy impressing the boss.
With PM Najib it’s not difficult to impress him. The doctors, who planned to take over IJN the last time, presented their case in medical jargon and he was impressed. Now the rich doctors are running IJN and on most airline flights, flight attendants will go around collecting donations for IJN.
For UMNO people, it’s time to be more Malay than other Malays. The more vociferous the better. Despite his declared preference for people with merits, DS Najib is human and will succumb to ‘careless whispers’ from those encircling him. If Nazir Razak were to put in some sanitized remarks about Azman Mokhtar, he shall be made a minister. After all as Nazir said, Azman is cheese to Anuar Aji’s chalk.
What is the size of DS Najib’s 4th floor? Only God knows. By the way, I thought people were aghast at the size and influence of Pak Lah’s 4th floor boys. Well boys, under DS Najib, the single level 4th Floor has become a duplex 4th floor.
Will the 13th general elections be held soon? That is the question haunting many people. The telltale signs are there. The postponement of UMNO party elections. This has always been a prominent indicator as UMNO can’t afford to go do battle as a divided force. Then there are the numerous bonuses here and there.
There are also danger lurking. UMNO can’t go out in the battle field believing it’s ready. What UMN believe and it believes in its own hype is one thing. What people believe of UMNO is more important.
Winning isn’t dependent on UMNO feeling whatever nowadays- the more important determinant is how do the people feel. People are not bothered for example with what Rais Yatim believes in. he is forever changing modes. People will not want to believe Nor Mohamad Yaakob anymore. Two of his aides were caught out with millions of Ringgit and a string of properties, that it’s difficult to believe NMY isn’t aware of these things.
Acceptance and belief in UMNO by the people is many times more important that what UMNO people and leaders psyched up themselves with. Downing all kind of strength-enhancing herbal drinks does not seem to help anymore.
Look at what’s happening in Selangor. If UMNO has to now depend on organizations like GAP to win back power, its future is doomed. First, you have got it wrong. You don’t change a government by asking the MB of the ruling government to resign. You get power through winning an election. That is the honorable and proper way. That is the right way.
And shouting and demanding Khalid Ibrahim step down isn’t an election. He is the MB. Try asking your own ketua kampong to step down? Working on the grassroots perceptions cannot be substituted with organized mob demonstrations. Sorry boys. Work on winning allegiance of the people.
As a former ADUN, I can almost picture the welling of emotions, hardly containable. Incumbents wish the election date is delayed so that they can remain as ADUNs or MPs for as long as possible. Most of the time, those agitating for early elections are those thinking it’s now their time. When one is terminated as ADUN and MP, it’s not necessarily because of underperformance. It has more to do with internal politicking, intrigues and insidious character assassinations.
Those itching to become ADUNs and MPs will not stop at anything to become one. They will push for early elections in the hope they get off red to stand as candidates.
I want to tell UMNO future candidates and incumbents not to be overzealous and overeager. You are entering this 13th general election under a brand name that has been discredited and which hasn’t recovered fully. Those ketua bahagians ousted in the 12the GE and were not selected as candidates then will take every opportunity to even the score by sabotaging UMNO. These are UMNO careerists – who think being at a position long enough, confers special privileges. These are the people most opposed to Najib’s grand plans of ETP, NEM, 1Malaysia etc.
Those most attached to their positions and have cultivated the idea of acquiring rights and privileges as of right are the very people steeped in the tradition of special Malay privileges for special Malays. They are to every ones captivated with the idea of getting things without the corresponding efforts. They are in a word the political rend seekers.
They are the very ones Najib must dispense with if he is true to what he stands for – NME, ETP, GTP, or whatever else he has thought and will think of in the alphabet soup.
