SAKMONGKOL AK47

CAN UMNO HEAL ITSELF?

For the past few weeks, Pak Lah has been meeting with UMNO branch leaders from all over. The UMNO leadership has also been undergoing brainstorming sessions somewhere in Shah Alam. I hope our leaders use their brains to the fullest, otherwise it will lend credence to the story going around that the most expensive brain after an Irish 's is a Malay brain. Why? because it is hardly used!.

I hope they will sincerely look into what ails UMNO and stop their ill directed repartee at Tun Mahathir. Please remember he is an ex UMNO president for 22 years and that most of you clowns got into office by way of his good graces. He was willing to accommodate your stupidity and nuances. Tun Mahathir is not the problem.

UMNO's inept and incompetent leadership shrouded in a impenetrable cocoon of arrogance is the problem. That arrogance still manifested itself even after the election results were known. The top UMNO leadership stubbornly resisted acknowledging its own shortcomings. Instead it steered blame to others.I am not going to belabour the obvious. Many people have written a great deal about the causes of UMNO's disastrous showing.
When Pak Lah meets UMNO grassroots leaders, he takes the opportunity to rationalize why UMNO has performed badly. He will explain that all these things are unfortunate. He will say external forces conspire to demolish UMNO. He will say people are envious at UMNO's success.

At the same time, these meetings allow Pak Lah to show the branch leaders his human side. Of course his humility, loyalty and piety, all of which are pompously packaged , are designed to cover his weaknesses. They are meant to cover the weaknesses of his leadership.

Everyone else within the top leadership enjoys the luxury of hiding behind the weaknesses of Pak Lah, attributing their own shortcomings to Pak Lah. Poor Prime Minster. He should fire half of his cabinet. They should have the gumption and the fortitude to balance his weak leadership.

The others in the team, starting from Dato Najib must show some leadership. Perhaps it is already too late for Pak Lah and the UMNO leadership.The problem with UMNO leadership is you are circulating the same material. How can you revolutionize or re-engineer UMNO then? You are circulating and re-packaging the same material over and over again. That is why my contention is, even if you transfer power to Dato Najib, there is no guarantee that he can rejuvenate UMNO.

And why pray tell, should the transfer be made now or even before the UMNO party elections? Is this a self preservation strategy taken by certain UMNO leaders to create the idea that Najib as president is best for UMNO? And by so doing their own positions are made safe? Their confidence in Najib is perhaps ill placed and untutored.

Does Dato Najib have the capabilities to restore UMNO? those untutored in his leadership will say yes. The gawking and possibly paid Ezam Mohd Nor certainly endorsed Dato Najib’s leadership. Recently he stated that it was Anwar Ibrahim’s avowed aim to demolish Dato Najib because Dato Najib is a smart leader. Smarter compared to whom? You dolt!

At the moment it appears it is Najib that is doing the moronic elegant silence which is nothing but an euphemism of stupidity and indecisiveness. My own estimation is that Najib is part of the whole problem, not a solution. wasn't he the director of national elections operations?

i am very sure when the MKT people meet up and did their so called brain teasers somewhere in Shah Alam, Najib will likely maintain a composure of non partisanship. That is a classic and really predictable behaviour on Najib's part. What he really hoped for is for the whole or at least the majority of the MKT people come around his way and persuade Pak Lah to move on. Najib would not want to risk a deliberate and pro-active interference lest he been seen as someone impatient. He will likely say, rather in a pseudo statesmanlike posturing, do not pressure Pak Lah. but the subtle message is not likely to be lost on Pak Lah, however thick he is.

The problem is , UMNO knows only a limited number of leaders. Perhaps this situation is the result of the quota system which restricts the emergence of leaders. You keep seeing the same old monied faces at MKT, the highest level of UMNO leadership. Many people ask, are there no other leaders in UMNO? Of course there are many other budding leadership talents that can emerge, but UMNO appear to shoot itself on the foot by instituting practices that stifle the emergence of credible, serious, determined and talented leaders.

The top posts for example have in built saving mechanisms in the form of specific nominations quota to allow aspirants to contest. The president's post for example require the aspirant to get at least 30% of the nomination and this translates easily to almost 60 nominations from the divisions. Under the climate of fear, no divisions dare break ranks for fear of being seen as disloyal to the UMNO president. Unless the quota requirement is repealed, it is likely that you will the same leadership ensconced to lead UMNO.

Perhaps the best way for UMNO to re-invent itself is to lose power altogether. That would make Pak Lah the leader of the opposition and Dato Najib a mere member of parliament. let’s see what material he is made of.
and this is what the MKT people meeting in some hideout in what is now an opposition state should do. it should address itself to the idea of liberalizing the choices of leadership.

If Najib were to be handed over the leadership, he will likely maintain the quota system for he is only interested in consolidating his position. The UMNO leadership should take a positive view of allowing changes of leadership to be exercised by delegates. By asking for a leadership change in favour of Najib, what the MKT is doing is sending a message that it is rushing towards saving their own skin before UMNO members press for more radical changes. The MKT is admitting that it fears the verdict of its members because they know, they are collectively responsible for UMNO's disaster.
Arrogance has permeated the very lowest of UMNO leadership. Let us examine the leadership at branch levels, something which I very familiar with. Are serious issues affecting Malay interests ever discussed at branch meetings? No. What are typically discussed at branch meetings are grouses directed at the UMNO leadership. It appears branch leaders are forever hatching plots to knock off the local reps.

The entire fabric of UMNO's organizational structure is woven with destructive culture. Hatching plots, insidious infighting, sowing distrusts and eliminating your competitors through vicious underhand methods. Can a party perform well with such a culture?