Reality check on UMNO

Britain's labor party probably now has a membership of 200,000 strong. In 1995, it has about 198,000 members. For a political party, that's not a big number. For a small number it has been able to govern Britain on several occasions.

The other major political party the Tories or the party that Margaret Thatcher once led has a membership of around 300,000 members. A conservative party member pays around RM 150 (£25) person as fee or around RM 30 (£5) if you are under the age of 23.

Relatively speaking, for a given population, Britain's political parties are small. They don't have 3,000,000 members of screaming skinheads with swastika emblems.

The capability of a small party ruling a first world country reflects to a large extent, the quality of leadership and the quality of party members. It also indicates less politicization of the population.

Suppose you do the same to UMNO. I mean, each member has to pay a fee of RM 150 per person per year and the pemuda, puteri and putera pay RM 30 per person per year.

That would immediately put a stop to any ketua bahagians, ketua cawangans, ketua pemuda or ketua puteri from paying for others. Everyone pays for themselves. Only those committed and who are believers in the party's cause will join. You don't need to have 3 million members if not all of them vote for you or don't believe in UMNO's cause. Big numbers mean nothing in the elections. It's the quality that's more important.

If members are not committed or believe in the party's cause, that is useless. In the last election, despite having 3 million members, UMNO candidates secured only 2.38 million votes. Malay voters numbered 5.7 million. If you subtract 380,000 voters from those who voted UMNO candidates on the assumption they were non Malays, you have 2 million as voters for UMNO. That means 1,000,000 UMNO members did not vote UMNO candidates or did not register as voters. More importantly, and I want UMNO leaders to be aware of this- 3.7 million Malay voters rejected UMNO candidates or did not register as voters or simply stayed home.

It's time for UMNO to look at this aspect of reforming the party. Raise the bar. Membership fees. Qualifications etc.

Will that make UMNO an elite party? Maybe so. But it isn't necessary for every Malay to become an UMNO member. It's sufficient if he supports UMNO because of its political programs. Being an UMNO member is no guarantee that he/she votes for UMNO candidates.

Quantity isn't relevant to UMNO. The UMNO leadership, I mean the entire leadership structure, especially those who think about the future should be thinking culture. A culture that lacks a driving, highly educated elite deeply committed to a cause is doomed to mediocrity.

UMNO doesn't have this culture. It has more of that crabs in the Malay open basket culture. UMNO isn't that serious about quality either. The riff raffs, the village bullies, the loafers, the lay-abouts, make up the majority of members.

UMNO doesn't seem to realize that actually, modern governance which includes decision making and priority setting is too complex to be left to the man in the street.