A party within a party

By MT Webmaster Last updated Dec 30, 2013

In the pre-Suhaimi days, Umno Youth was a party within a party, a sort of pressure group to keep the ‘mother-ship’ in line and true to the party’s struggle. Umno proper used to be very scared of Umno Youth and most times the Youth wing would determine the party’s policies. Not even the party President or the Prime Minister dared tell Umno Youth to go screw itself.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

We can replace you as Malay champions, Perkasa warns Umno

(MM) – Once considered a virtual extension of Umno but increasingly ignored since Election 2013, Perkasa today warned the party that it risked being usurped by the Malay rights group if it fails to uphold the Bumiputera agenda.

Speaking at its fourth annual general assembly here, Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali suggested that Umno is showing signs of weaknesses and becoming “toothless” in its fight to protect Malay interests.

The former Pasir Mas lawmaker also appeared to bare his fangs at Umno, saying that Perkasa was prepared to adopt an adversarial role in the 14th general election should the Malay lynchpin of Barisan Nasional (BN) fail to deliver on the Bumiputera Economic Empowerment Agenda.

“If Umno appears exhausted, tired and toothless, come on then, we Perkasa can take up your place,” Ibrahim said to roars from the 500 delegates in attendance today.

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You may dislike (or even hate) Ibrahim Ali but what he said is partially true. And I say partially true (and not totally true) because it is Umno Youth rather than Umno proper that has become, as Ibrahim Ali said, ‘toothless’.

I have, in fact, written about this about 20 years or so ago when I said that Umno Youth used to be a party within a party but has since tamed somewhat. I was, of course, referring to the then Umno Youth Leader, Najib Tun Razak, who I said was a lover and not a fighter.

Actually, Umno Youth began to become ‘toothless’ about 30 years ago during the time of Suhaimi Kamaruddin, who was the Umno Youth Leader from 1977 to 1982. Before him were Syed Jaafar Albar, Harun Idris, Ustaz Ahmad Badawi, Senu Abdul Rahman, Sardon Jubir, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein and Tun Hussein Onn (its first Youth Leader).

Those Umno Youth Leaders before Suhaimi were Malay nationalists who were all involved in the ‘struggle’ for Merdeka (although the struggle was more to negotiate peacefully with the British and hammer out an agreement with MCA and MIC rather than an armed rebellion like our neighbours, Indonesia and Philippines).

Then came the era of Suhaimi Kamaruddin who became the Umno Youth Leader for five years. And Umno Youth no longer was the same old Umno Youth. Even the newly appointed Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, did not think much of Umno Youth or Suhaimi Kamaruddin (who was the nephew of Dr Mahathir’s good friend, Harun Idris).

About a year after Dr Mahathir took over, he brought Anwar Ibrahim into the party and endorsed Anwar’s bid for the Umno Youth leadership. Barely a few months later, Anwar challenged Suhaimi and won although he had not been even a year in the party (and the ‘rules’ say you must be a member for at least five years before you contest anything).

One of the main reasons given for Anwar’s ‘premature’ challenge for the Umno Youth leadership was that Umno Youth was now ‘toothless’ and no longer the party within a party or the pressure group like it once was. Suhaimi was just too lembik (soft) for the job and it needed a ‘strong’ and ‘aggressive’ person like Anwar to restore Umno Youth to what it used to be.

The Umno Youth members agreed with this argument. They wanted a militant Umno Youth and Suhaimi was not doing that. They would now hand Umno Youth to Anwar so that it can return to its militant days.

Amongst one of the many ‘militant’ things that Anwar did was to take on the British government and demand the return of Carcosa, the official residence of the British High Commissioner — which the first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, had given to the British as a present for granting the country Merdeka.

I suppose Anwar had to demonstrate that he was more aggressive and militant than the Umno Youth Leader he had just replaced because that was the reason the members voted for him to replace Suhaimi. So he took back the present that the country gave the British.

Anwar, too, was the Umno Youth Leader for five years. He was then succeeded by Najib Tun Razak, Rahim Thamby Chik, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, and now, Khairy Jamaluddin. The post-Anwar days were again ‘mild’ days for Umno Youth and none of the new leaders showed the same aggressiveness as those leaders of the pre-Suhaimi days.

Many within Umno want the party to return to the days when the Youth wing was outspoken and dared to call a spade a spade. For example, one of its early leaders, Syed Jaafar Albar, was called the Lion of Umno and he even wanted Malaysia to declare war on Singapore. Another leader, Harun Idris, triggered the May 13 race riots. Tun Razak (who was also implicated in May 13) launched the New Economic Policy. And so on.

No doubt some people might label this as racism but to the Umno members this is what they call Malay Nationalism. And MCA and MIC, too, were allowed to fight for Chinese and Indian interests respectively and Umno Youth did not call this racism.

The current Umno Youth Leader, Khairy Jamaluddin, is going to have to decide whether he wants to be a liberal leader or transform into a Malay Nationalist like the Umno Youth Leaders of days gone by. A weak Umno Youth would be an opening for PERKASA to take over as the pressure group or the unofficial party within a party.

PERKASA’s strength is going to come from Umno Youth’s weakness. That is the sad reality of the whole situation. Umno realises that the next general election is going to be a do or die situation for Umno.

Whether the other component members of Barisan Nasional are going to be able to win back the non-Malay vote is uncertain. What is certain, though, is that Umno will need the Malay vote to stay in power and that may only happen if the Malays see that Umno is once again a Malay Nationalist party that dares face the non-Malays and take no shit from them.

And this brings us back to what I have written and lectured about many times over the last few years, Umno’s 3R strategy, which is going to become even more important for the party’s survival in the run up to the next general election.

Sad isn’t it that we need to turn back the clock to the 1950s when race was the political game of the day?