Striking the right chord

On the same note: Khairy has given Umno Youth the urban voice that it so badly needs in the new political landscape. He is seen with the Prime Minister at a music event organised by Barisan Nasional Youth.

The three wings of Umno are reporting back to the party next week on what they have accomplished after having to confront some very challenging terrain in the post-2008 political landscape.

Umno Youth has been the most aggressive opposition among the three wings and its chief Khairy Jamaluddin has been central to this role. The Youth wing has adapted best to the new environment and Penang Youth head Sheikh Hussein Mydin is making a name for himself as a critic of the Chief Minister.

Joceline Tan, The Star

DATUK Seri Shahrizat Jalil may be down and on the way out but her ladies in red still love her.

She is no longer a minister, she does not get the media coverage she used to enjoy and she is struggling to clear her family’s name in court over the NFCorp case. But her supporters in Wanita Umno do not seem to mind and many of them still flock to hug and kiss her at Wanita events.

It has been a turbulent year for the Wanita Umno leader during which her personal life was turned upside down and her political career derailed. But very few who have seen her in action would suspect that life has been anything but normal for her.

The lady has been superb at keeping her composure. She is immaculately groomed as always, her smile is as broad as ever except it does not seem to reach her eyes these days. And wearing the tudung has given her a new image as a Muslim woman.

The chief concern of many Umno leaders when Shahrizat quit her minister post in April was the potential impact on the women’s wing.

They have seen with their own eyes the kind of support she enjoys in the wing. For instance, Kota Belud MP Datuk Rahman Dahlan was stunned to see the normally staid Wanita ladies, some of whom were old enough to be his mother, climbing on top of their chairs and screaming their support for Shahrizat when the latter visited Kota Kinabalu earlier this year.

“I was like, wow, I have not seen anything like that before,” said Rahman.

But their fears have not materialised. The Wanita wing has held together and part of the credit goes to Shahrizat. She has tried to keep things as normal as usual by holding back her emotions instead of transferring it to the ladies.

Without the NFCorp scandal, Shahrizat would have been a wildly successful leader of the wing and won another term hands down. But the sun is setting on her career and she has told her ladies that she will not be contesting the next election.

A lot of her oomph is gone without the ministerial clout and she has lost the moral high ground on a lot of issues but there is no question about her commitment as Wanita Umno chief.

“You look around and you can see they are still intact. You don’t see cracks. I believe she will go all out for Umno in the general election,” said Rahman.

The senior ladies have shown they are among the most stable and loyal segment of the party. A lot of it has to do with the nature of their gender and the fact that being mothers and grandmothers, they see things in a much more long-term perspective.

The Jalinan Rakyat system that Shahrizat introduced at the start of her term is set to be one of the key advantages of the Barisan Nasional campaign in the coming election. Wanita Umno used to be known for their Kumpulan-10 programme where every Wanita member monitors 10 houses in their area. Shahrizat upgraded it to each member looking over 10 voters. The implementation is uneven but in areas where they have been diligent, it means the wing is able to gauge the voting sentiment in great detail.

And because of their wide outreach, they are also able to identify needy households. In Selangor, the ladies are known to visit needy families regardless of race with basic items like cooking oil and canned food. People say a lot of nasty things about Umno but its reputation as a grassroots party is for real.

Umno’s toughest post-2008 challenge has been adapting to the role of opposition in Kedah, Penang, Selangor and Kelantan.

“It hasn’t been easy because Umno is used to being in power. But I can see them making noise, raising issues in the last couple of years. They have learnt that you cannot take people and power for granted,” said businessman Juhaidi Yean Abdullah.

Central role

Umno Youth has been the most aggressive opposition among the three wings and its chief Khairy Jamaluddin has been central to this role. The Youth wing has adapted best to the new environment and Penang Youth head Sheikh Hussein Mydin is making a name for himself as a critic of the Chief Minister.

Khairy had a rocky start after winning the post in a bitter three-way fight with Datuk Seri Dr Khir Toyo and Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir. Dr Khir has been knocked out of the game following his graft conviction. Khairy’s relationship with Mukhriz is still thorny but they treat each other professionally in Parliament.

Many in Umno blamed Khairy and then Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for their 2008 debacle. But the boos that had greeted Khairy when he won the Umno Youth leadership in 2009 have changed to acknowledgement that he has performed. The critics are still there but it is increasingly hard to find people in Umno who do not agree that Khairy has done well despite not holding a government post.

Every generation is different from the one before it but this generation has been particularly different because of unprecedented factors like the Internet and a world without borders. In that sense, Khairy had more on his plate than many of his predecessors.

But his approach and commentary on public issues have shown that he has the intellect, is able to think on his feet and articulates well. His less than conventional style and ideas also reflect well on people of his generation and that is important for a Youth wing.

He has given Umno Youth the urban voice that it so badly needs.

The wing was the prime mover behind the Barisan Youth Lab, a platform for young people to express their views and concerns. Some of the proposals led to actual government policies aimed to meet the housing needs of the younger generation. It mooted the annual Barisan Youth Jobs Fair and participated in the push for civil liberties and has even proposed a bank belia for young people.

Some in Umno said the turning point for Khairy was during the Bersih 2.0 street rally when he and other Youth members defied a ban on entering the city to join the protests. He was tear-gassed, drenched by pepper water and arrested. In the eyes of many in Umno, he took the hits for the party and it means something to them.

Others said it was his series of public debates with PKR strategist Rafizi Ramli and Bersih chairman Datuk S. Ambiga. Khairy held his own and some thought he did better than Rafizi in one of the debates.

Gold medal material

Lanchang assemblyman Datuk Sharkar Shamsuddin likes to say that Khairy is gold medal material in the arena of debates because no one else in Umno has done what he did.

“Speaking at a ceramah is easy but a debate is tough. You have to do your homework, you’ve got to be able to argue factually,” said Sharkar.

When he started out in Parliament, the opposition bench used to taunt him as the “richest unemployed man”. But Khairy has become one of the most watched backbenchers and, according to his friend and colleague Rahman, he has taken on no less than Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in some fiery exchanges.

The upside to being without a government post is that he is freer to speak up and take stands that may be contrary to that of the government. He has measured up well against his Youth counterparts like Nasruddin Hassan of PAS and Shamsul Iskander of PKR.

Khairy used to be seen as a tall poppy, cocky and too big for his boots but the shoes fit better now.

“He has emerged from the shadow of his father-in-law, he is becoming his own person,” said Juhaidi.

Puteri Umno pales in comparison and Puteri chief Datuk Rosnah Rashid Shirlin, like her immediate predecessor Datuk Noraini Ahmad, has struggled under the long shadow of founding Puteri leader Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said.

Azalina made Puteri famous partly by the sheer force of her personality – she was bold and tomboyish, unafraid to buck the trend and had lots of va-va-voom. A common remark made about the post-Azalina Puteri wing was that it is lembab or slow.

When eye candy Noraini took over, the men used to say that the wing was “pretty and smells nice” but basically, they were mostly disappointed with the wing.

Rosnah won the post after a multi-corner fight and, as Rahman pointed out, those who lost did not give their full cooperation. Moreover, Rosnah, a lawyer and a serious person by nature, brought a sober and safe style to a basically young wing and she was seen as toeing the line on issues.

The wing has fluctuated from being happening to being pretty and nice-smelling to playing a more mature role. It needs to find its footing.

The Puteri ladies have been assigned to handle the IT needs of Umno on the ground and most people in Umno acknowledge that they have done well in that aspect.

“When Puteri was formed, there was a crying need for young Malay women to have a role in Umno. It is still relevant but it needs to be more creative in approach,” said Umno politician from Terengganu Datuk Wan Albakri Mohd Noor.

Politics is a numbers game and critics claimed that the Puteri membership has not increased much. The wing has some 370,000 members and Rosnah has actually recruited about 90,000 new members since taking over.

But the 35-year age limit in the wing means that every year, thousands of Puteri girls graduate to join Wanita Umno.

The three wings of Umno have had mixed results in the new politics of the post-tsunami years. It has not been an easy journey but the difficult part is yet to come when they will have to put in their all in the general election.