Umno’s two souls
Clive Kessler, The Malay Mail Online
Among my friends, including my co-authors in this brave new book, I am often seen, I admit — and on their part pityingly — as some sort of Umno “softie”, an “Umno sentimentalist.”
Why?
Because I haven’t yet given up, not entirely, on Umno. Because (silly boy that I still am) I won’t and cannot let myself do so.
I want it to reform itself.
Can it?
Will it?
Does it even want to?
Back to these questions later.
But why?
Why do I want it, and keep imploring it, to reform itself, to change its ways, its manner, its approach?
Simple.
I want it to reform itself, to “lift its game” and raise its moral “line of sight”, to broaden its horizons, political and human because — no matter how unlikely, and no matter how reluctant Umno may be to do so — I fear what will happen if it does not.
I fear not for it but for all Malaysia.
Why?
What is my thinking here? What is my fear?
Let me state my position clearly.
Like so many countries, Malaysia too is in need of change — and there is no shame in saying so.
And in Malaysia — this is the basic political fact — there can be no plausible and enduring change, no change that has any prospect of enjoying broad acceptance and real effect, that is not backed and supported, even promoted, by Umno.
If change is to take hold, succeed, and be generally accepted, then Umno must be part of its driving coalition or base:
If not enthusiastically, even if reluctantly, or at least on the basis of a clear and wise assessment of political realities that — in the absence of any other sustainable long-term option — it must do so.
If Umno is against change, any change, it won’t happen. It cannot.
It simply will not be allowed to.
In other words, as its people know and we all too, Umno has a continuing “veto power” over Malaysian politics and life.
This immensely fateful “veto power” must be seen, above all by Umno’s leaders, as a solemn responsibility: not as an endless opportunity, or a temptation to escalating excess; not as an unending, perpetual right.
Is this how Umno and its leaders now see things? No.
So, does Umno need to change? Yes.
Can it? Perhaps.
Will it? I fear not.
Does it even want to?
I doubt it. Not yet anyway.
The basic questions now face us, and it: “What is to be done?” What is “the way forward?” Is there one?
If it is to be discerned and identified, Umno must get to know itself better, to know and “own” its own past.
Umno today must see clearly, and accept fully, its origins in “the two Umnos”: The two rival souls that make their home within the one body, dua jiwa dalam satu tubuh badan — Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Melayu Bersatu, Umno.
