Umno: living in denial

By MT Webmaster Last updated Jan 10, 2015

Najib has to sack the entire lot and replace them with people who are not only capable but will not stab him in the back as well. Then Najib has to introduce reforms in both Umno and the government. Only then can Umno hope to win back the support of the voters.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

There are some in Umno who think that the way to solve the party’s problems is to kick out their President and Prime Minister. Once Najib Tun Razak is replaced then 90% of the Indians, 80% of East Malaysians, 70% of the Chinese, and 60% of the Malays will vote for Barisan Nasional.

That makes as much sense as saying that once the Kelantan state government implements the Islamic Sharia laws of Hudud there will no longer be any floods in Kelantan. Even Mekah floods from time to time and is that not where God’s House (Baitullah) is situated? And do they not also implement Hudud in Saudi Arabia?

I suppose the excuse they will offer is that Saudi Arabia is being punished for being too friendly with America. China is not too friendly with America and yet they suffer floods, earthquakes, landslides, factory explosions, buildings collapsing, stampedes, and much more.

Anyway, Kadir Jasin’s recent comment that to save Umno Najib must go is a classic case of living in denial. It is like some saying that for Pakatan Rakyat to win the next general election Anwar Ibrahim must retire and hand power to someone else.

Okay, so the solution is simple. For Umno to stay in power Najib must go and a new leader must take over. And for Pakatan Rakyat to take power Anwar must go and a new leader must take over.

Let us say both of these happen. Both Najib and Anwar retire and new leaders take over. So what is now going to happen? Will Umno be able to stay in power and at the same time Pakatan Rakyat takes over?

How can both happen at the same time? If Umno stays in power then Pakatan Rakyat cannot take power and if Pakatan Rakyat takes power then Umno is going to be kicked out.

Hence the theory that for Umno to stay in power Najib must go and a new leader must take over and for Pakatan Rakyat to take power Anwar must go and a new leader must take over cannot be correct. It has to be one or the other. It cannot be both.

People may be disgusted with Anwar but if they reject Pakatan Rakyat it will be more because of the internal bickering, the inter-party squabbles, the agree to disagree fiasco, the Hudud issue, the ‘Kajang Move’ disaster, the Selangor MB crisis, and so on. Kicking Anwar out is only going to partly help but that will not be enough to win back the confidence of those who since 2013 have abandoned Pakatan Rakyat.

The same applies to Umno. Kicking out Najib will not bring back 90% of the Indian voters, 80% of the East Malaysian voters, 70% of the Chinese voters, and 60% of the Malay voters. More than that needs to happen.

Kadir has always hated Najib from back in the days when the former was the head of NST. Hence it is natural that he criticises Najib. He has always criticised Najib from way back. Only that today he has been given the ‘passport’ to whack Najib to kingdom come.

Is Kadir really concerned about the future of Umno? Umno has been rotting from the days that Kadir was heading NST. Why did he not tegur Umno then? Kadir knows that the problem with Umno is Umno itself. People are disgusted with Umno. Never mind who leads Umno. Whether it is Muhyiddin Yassin, Hishammuddin Hussein, Zahid Hamidi, Khairy Jamaluddin, or whoever, this is not going to change how people feel about Umno.

Hence Kadir is fooling himself if he thinks that by kicking out Najib Umno is going to rule up to the year 3030 or beyond. Or maybe he is trying to fool us instead.

Dear Kadir, let me make this very clear, we are disgusted with Umno because of the Umno culture. And that is why I stated four years ago that I do not support the ABU movement (anything but Umno).

Of course, this made Haris Ibrahim quite pissed with me. But I did explain that I do not support ABU because I do not want people to have the impression that we can solve all our problems by just kicking out Umno. Kicking out Umno will not solve our problems if we do not also eradicate the Umno culture.

Take what has been happening in Selangor over the last year as one example. The ‘Kajang Move’ and the Selangor MB Crisis is very much the trademark of Umno. Hence if we kick out Umno but the opposition adopts the Umno culture and acts just like Umno that is not going to solve anything.

Kadir’s use of Caesar and Rome as his analogy is actually quite ironical. Caesar was assassinated by his friends who were jealous of him. They used saving Rome merely as the excuse to justify their evil deed. So is Kadir saying that those who want Najib out are friends who are jealous of him and that they are using saving Umno as merely the excuse?

Kadir may actually be right. Those so-called friends who surround Najib are doing him more harm than good. With friends like that Najib does not need any enemies.

Najib was in Hawaii to meet President Obama over golf at the height of the floods. As they say in the corporate world, more deals are done on the golf course than in the meeting room. And I am sure it would have taken many months to plan a meeting with a round of golf with someone as important as the US President.

And I am sure if the US President wants to meet the Malaysian Prime Minister over golf it must have been due to a very important matter. The US President is just too important and too busy to spend a day with a foreign leader to discuss trivial matters.

So the Malaysian Prime Minister is away to attend an event that was most likely planned long before anyone knew Malaysia was going to see one of its worst floods in decades. But do we not also have a Deputy Prime Minister and a Cabinet plus a bloated staff in Putrajaya?

What were these people doing when the Prime Minister was away to meet the US President? Are you saying that without Najib nothing can happen? Najib is not singlehandedly running Malaysia. There are more than 1.5 million civil servants, many who are in the Cabinet and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

It appears like they all left Najib to take the rap. The Umno Secretary-General and the Umno Information Chief both stood aside and allowed Najib to take all the heat.

Mustapa Mohamed, the International Trade and Industry Minister, is also the Kelantan Umno Liaison Committee chairman. What was he doing during the floods? Does he need the Prime Minister to do his job? And the same for the other state Umno Liaison Committee chairmen as well.

Let me say that again. The problem is not Najib. The problem is Umno. And unless there are changes, we do not care two hoots who the hell the Prime Minister is. And a good start would be not to kick out Najib but to kick out all those bunch of jokers because even if Najib is kicked out an unreformed Umno is still not acceptable to most Malaysians.

So perish the thought if you think that by kicking out Najib the country is going to be fantastic if it is merely old wine in a new bottle.

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK