As Umno enters a new era, questions remain on whether it can reinvent itself

(MMO) – As former Malaysian premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced over the weekend his stepping down from leadership positions in Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition and its lynchpin party United Malays National Organisation (Umno), his parting shot was that no party can be compared to Umno and it “will continue to live on”.

Umno party members reeling from the crushing defeat by Pakatan Harapan (PH) and observers are not so sure about this, saying much would depend on how the 72-year-old party that has helped BN governed Malaysia for six decades until last Wednesday (May 9) picks up the pieces and reinvents itself.

For a start, the party must now adjust to its new role as the opposition, which its leaders acknowledged will take some time getting used to.

More changes could be afoot in the coming months, with loyalists and political analysts saying that it has to revamp its inner workings and strategies to stay relevant.

This would mean opening up to honest feedback from grassroots activists and moving away from its long-held tactics of pork-barrel and race-based politics, they added.

Executive director of think-tank Ilham Centre Hisomuddin Bakar noted that having governed the country for so long, Umno has become “complacent” and “failed to understand the needs of the Malays”.

“The policies that it put in place do not reflect the worries and concerns that people have,” he added, citing the Goods and Services Tax (GST). So, now the people made Umno suffer by voting it out of power

Asked at a press conference on Friday what birthday message he has for Umno (the party celebrated its 72nd anniversary that day), newly minted prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s snarky response was: “Go back to your roots”.

Those words from Dr Mahathir, who once led the party for 22 years, resonated with Umno loyalists and supporters.

Umno’s deputy chief of the youth wing in Alor Setar, Kedah Syed Mohd Johan Rizal Syed Unan Mashri, 38, said that the party started out as the “people’s champion”, thus its slogan “Bersatu, Bersetia, Berkhidmat” or “United, Loyal, To Serve”.

Increasingly over the years, however, party leaders chose to be deaf to the concerns from Malays and are “not open to honest criticisms from within the party”.

Johan told TODAY: “We know what’s happening on the ground, but we could not give honest feedback on what the party was doing wrong.”

Terengganu Umno youth leader Mohd Johari Abu Bakar said this inability of the Umno grassroots to convey ground sentiments to the top leadership had “ruined” whatever the party has done for the country over the past few decades.

Dr Ooi Kee Beng of the think-tank Penang Institute said that considering Umno has a well-oiled party machinery, its failure to make the best use of it to mine information and devise good policies and political strategies cost it dearly.

“They know the people were angry with the GST, but they still retained the policy. At the same time, they didn’t do much about the stagnant wages,” he added.

Umno’s women’s wing chief Sharizat Abdul Jalil dismissed the notion that the party’s leadership was out of touch.

“It’s just a combination of many factors. There’s no one single factor that led to the defeat. So, we have to do a post mortem,” she told reporters over the weekend.

Shahrizat and other party leaders said Umno has to take stock of where it went wrong, and learn from those mistakes.

Datuk Seri Najib has handed over the reins of BN and Umno to Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi and Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, previously his No 2 and No 3 respectively, but both are seen to be closely linked to the ousted leader and could face a challenge from others who question their suitability to chart a new path for the party.

One person who seems keen to do so is former youth and sports minister Khairy Jamaluddin, who has made a series of comments in recent days calling for “big changes” in the party immediately.

“I call on my comrades who wish to rebuild Umno… to stand with me as change must begin immediately,” he wrote in a post on Facebook on Friday that suggests he could be eyeing a bigger role in the party.

Beyond saying that the party must do more for the people and listen to them, Khairy and other Umno members have not spelt out clearly what other changes the party should make.

Political analysts however say that Umno will have to move away from money politics — dangling carrots such as cash handouts to lure voters — and stoking racial concerns that the Chinese will control the country.

Hisomuddin noted that both money and racial politics do not appeal to the younger generation.

Malaysians below 40 years old formed over 40 per cent of the almost 15 million voters in the recent election.

Some Umno supporters agree on the need to change tactics.

“Instead of giving one-off handouts, how about introducing long-term sustainable economic policies,” said salesman Farid Abdul Rahman, 37.

The party’s members and supporters said that change from within is long overdue, and that the electoral loss is a wake-up call.

Johan said: “Umno is loved by the Malays. They voted for the opposition to teach us a lesson not to take them for granted.

“Even Dr Mahathir, I believe, still loves Umno, except that he wants us to change. The party’s leaders didn’t want to listen.”

Public relations officer Syamsul Kahar pointed out that Umno has to beef up its policy proposals from now on to show that it still places the Malays at the top of its priorities. “If you don’t help the poor Malays in rural areas, how can you say you’re the defender of Malays? We have to do some soul searching.”

Umno insiders and political analysts said that it will take some time for Umno to find its feet as an opposition.

Given that BN only has 79 seats compared to the 89 seats that PH had previously held as an opposition, BN might not make as much of an impact, noted Universiti Malaya’s political analyst Professor Awang Azman Awang Pawi.

“Furthermore, BN has been used to playing the government role and not the opposition. So, they would initially struggle with this new self of theirs and it would take some time for the realisation that they’re now the opposition to kick in.”

Former deputy finance minister Datuk Othman Aziz of Umno, who lost his parliamentary seat of Jerlun in Kedah to Dr Mahathir’s son, and now chief minister Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir, admitted that it would “weird to play the opposition role”.

He said that party MPs have to wait and see how the new PH government performs before criticising them.

“They are only starting out, so we have to give them time. Otherwise, what can we criticise?” he told TODAY.

Still, Umno should not oppose for the sake of opposition, said Othman, adding that it has to be a “responsible opposition party”.

“We will work with the government where it’s possible. At the end of the day, we need to think of the people’s needs and not our needs.”