The Rise of Moneyocracy in UMNO

Dato Najib has said it. UMNO will not abolish the various UMNO ‘wings’. He said it is too drastic a measure. He was responding to Tengku Ahmad Rithaudeen’s suggestions on UMNO’s structural set up. He was joined by other notable UMNO leaders in saying that.

The main issue as Dato Najib rightly says is money politics. Appeasing and consoling pemudas, puteris and wanitas should not overwhelm our focus on the baneful effects of money politics. But undue attention to assuage hurt feelings in the wings will do just that. Deflect our attention from the main issue.

The main issue here is, are we willing to compromise a system which we set out to do? All right thinking UMNO members are united in purpose to set up a political system that brings up this country. The integrity of that system depends, among other things, on ensuring nothing undermines it. Corruption, if allowed will eat into the foundations of that system. In that system, UMNO places itself as the principal enforcer. UMNO compromises the system and becomes a willing participant to the decay, if it is hesitant to be firm on corruption.

It must start therefore by cleaning its own stables. It is a Herculean task. The MACC with full political will is the shovel for that task. UMNO will not escape ridicule and disrepute if it does anything that curtails the effectiveness of the MACC. That would be equivalent of giving a gun to the Disciplinary Board, but no bullets to shoot with. Ku Din as chairman of UMNO’s Disciplinary Board swallows its own vomit, if it holds back from unleashing its full force on corruption. Why go after the small fries? It is an open secret that all the major posts in UMNO are being fought out on the battlefields of Moneyocracy. I am thankful to the blogger who goes by the name Raison d’être who introduces me to this term.

We have set out to establish a system to build UMNO into a respectable party to represent Malay interests provided also we have not compromised the nation’s interests. Snuffing out money politics in UMNO is not just an exercise of showing we are righteous. It must be accepted as an imperative to preserve the integrity of UMNO. Once that integrity is compromised by a practice such as endorsing money politics, the foundations on which UMNO stands will crumble. Sloshing our way through with money is not the UMNO and certainly not the Malay way.

That is the essence of his musings, obtainable if serious gloss is applied. On the other hand if we are superficial, if our constitution is one with a shallowness of the mind, we will be quick to dismiss Ku Din’s suggestions as the musings of a senile mind. We will just be plebeian if we take Ku Din’s remarks at nominal value. In the absence of a firm counter rebuke from the UMNO leadership at the show of defiance by representatives of ‘2500’ delegates, I am inclined, to believe the present UMNO leadership is superficial and has not got a clue on what is happening.

The scourge of UMNO, is money politics. That has been decried since 30 years ago. Since that time too, UMNO has been powerless or even unwilling to stem out money politics. The last UMNO gentleman, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah was willing to become a victim rather than capitulate under the weight of Moneyocracy. For that, he is viewed as a dangerous gadfly even by UMNO members. with regards to money politics, UMNO appears to be directionless.

Indeed, UMNO is seen as befudging the issue of money politics. Dato Najib says that solution lies in effective policing and infusing values in UMNO. These are big words. But then Dato Najib is a big figure. He must speak in grandiloquent terms- policing and values. If those exhortations and prayers were written down, I would have to say; they have not even dried up, when they are already savaged.

All right thinking UMNO members in particular and Malays in general should register their profound condemnation and disgust at the antics of a group of putera and pemuda UMNO rebuking Pak lah for allowing the MACC to carry out its job. One protester even shouted pejoratively that Pak Lah is a coward. Surely that behaviour was beyond the bounds of decency.

What is more offensive to our collective decency was the open embrace of corruption as a means to secure power and positions. What else can explain their vehement protestations on MACC?

The leaders of the group staging their protests to the UMNO leadership, say they represent 2500 youth delegates all over the country. But please tell us, which 2500 delegates? Are they the delegates from the underbellies of UMNO made up of the UMNO members devoid of any iota of honour? Are they, those faceless members from the cawangans, mat rempits, enforcers and the UMNO lumpen-proletariat? Do they comprise those whose means of making extra money is the continuance of the present UMNO system? And what appears to be the system which they rise up in stout defence? Are they the 2500 mute delegates who agree in unison that it is all right to resort to Moneyocracy?. I hope, this is NOT the new UMNO ideology deriving its legitimacy from the hallowed traditions of UMNO. Mati Lah UMNO macam ini.