Saving UMNO

In many of my previous articles in my blog, I have written on the significance of the Permatang Pauh by elections. Among the things that I said;

1. Permatang Pauh will be Dato Najib’s waterloo.
2. Dato Najib goes into the tiger’s lair.- the ex DPM waits for the current DPM to come into his lair.
3. Permatang Pauh, is the last nail in UMNO’s coffin.

In his recent blog, the great Tun Mahathir said it regretfully, Permatang Pauh is UMNO’s death knell.

I have said it before, that whatever the Tun said must be taken very seriously. He has the knack of being prescient. So when he says, its UMNO’s death knell, we would be well advised to take heed.

I said Permatang Pauh wasn’t just a court to try Anwar. God knows UMNO/BN didn’t hold anything back to vanquish Anwar. But at the same time, PP was also a people’s court prosecuting the Abdullah-Najib Leadership.

Because he was the field commander, Dato Najib had to face the brunt of attacks by the PKR attack dogs. It didn’t help matters when Najib has his own skeletons in the cupboard too willing to be exploited severely by PKR. Everywhere he goes, the reception was poor. Other than his entourage, support for UMNO/BN was clearly absent.

UMNO’s defeat in PP clearly shows that the people reject UMNO/BN. In particular they reject Pak Lah and Dato Najib and the entire UMNO leadership.

The first thing to do is to re-structure the leadership. Clearly, Pak Lah and Dato Najib’s positions are untenable. They should leave it to the UMNO members to decide. And the delegates must make their decisions in consonance with the wishes of the UMNO members who speak for the Malays.

Now, the future of UMNO is no longer about preserving Pak Lah and Dato Najib. Bring back democracy in UMNO so that the 2000 over delegates can decide who they want. The signals from the grassroots are that, they do not want to confine their choices among the tired old faces.

The tired old faces are the people responsible for projecting an image of arrogance and insensitivity. They are also responsible for creating the image that UMNO is all about scrambling for power to feather leaders’ nest. Meanwhile ordinary UMNO members and the rakyat stand as silent witnesses to bright promises but utterly dismal performances by the UMNO/BN government.

Therefore the UMNO ketua bahagians must now show substance in their resolve to effect leadership changes. And they must not do it superficially.

When Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah said there is no need for UMNO to re-invent itself, that statement may not be totally true. Even when leadership changes take place, the process of renewing resolve and determination as preconditions to secure a whole range of objectives, must also take place, down through the rank and file. The battle for victory must be won over and over again. This same principle is adopted religiously among practitioners of communism. It is called the theory of permanent revolution.

If not, superficial leadership changes can never pull UMNO out of its despondency. The sheer weight of age old enervating culture will pull the leadership down.