The one-day 13th. MUBARAK General Assembly, opened by UMNO's Vice President, Hishammudin, at a dinner last night, was held for most of to-day at the PWTC, and ended before lunch. I left before that, to catch the 1.15 train to Seremban.
I also didn't stay to hear Hishammudin's speech after dinner last night, but I wasn't alone, but most stayed back until the end. I gathered he touched on the "climate change" in UMNO's politics, and the need to shore up support for the ruling coalition.
Aziz, the current President of Mubarak, spoke well enough in the opening speech to-day. He thanked Hishammudin for the opening ceremony last night. He touched on the declining number of members (now 624) because of deaths. He spoke at length on the pension problem facing members from the beginning of Mubarak. He touched on the "wrong" People's Declaration by the movement led by Mahathir. He spoke of Mubarak's efforts at engaging the tertiary students in local politics. And he announced with rightful pride the acquisition of the Sentul real estate for purposes of future sustenance of Mubarak.
And yet it took the penultimate debater from Sabah, in supporting the Supreme Council's motion, to nail the real issues facing the ruling government. Up until that point, no one mentioned the major issues faced by Najib's government: 1 MDB and the related aftermath; the very recent incredible corruption case involving the Sabah administration and the recovery of 115 million cash; the sacking of UMNO's top echelon members like Shapiei from Sabah and Mukhriz in Kedah; the very real security problems in Sabah in spite of all the spending and all the assurances from the Central Government; and the chances for the coalition government win in Sabah in the next GE ( he declared it 50:50).
There persisted the same feeling to-day, as shown by the Selangor lady speaker, of the need to support Najib unquestionably, and the "feel good" stance of Selangor UMNO, as was apparent in the last UMNO's General Assembly, when no one was allowed to talk on 1MDB, UMNO's biggest ghost. That is, until Sabah spoke, and it probably made the assembly reluctantly sit up.
The Selangor lady, like her Kelantan counterpart, should realise that UMNO is highly likely to remain out of the ruling party position in the foreseeable future in that state, and should start to talk and act accordingly. Then only can UMNO in Selangor and Kelantan start to prepare themselves to understand the feelings of the people, and start trying to win them over again. The Kelantanese have shown in the past that they can leave PAS for another party, if the right presentation to the voters is done.
I've been sought out by a few people during the assembly, including Negeri Sembilan's Mubarak President, for appearing with Mukhriz in Senawang recently. My explanation was simple: I wanted to see the crowd, and I wanted to hear what Mukhriz had to say. Then someone in the group saw me and know my past government position, and invited me up front to shake hands with Mukhriz. I've no problem with that. As Yusof Misai said to-day, my own opinion must be respected.
Yazid sent word that he wanted me to debate the motion on behalf of Negeri Sembilan, and he came around to our table asking who's speaking. I said Yusof Misai has agreed to do it, and that was that. In fact Yusof was dramatically effective in the end. He only touched on the pension problem, but you couldn't have made it more colourful. Both Aziz and Yazid on stage started with smiles as Yusof started speaking. In the end the smile only remained on Yazid's face !
Current UMNO officer-bearers have been scared off from being critical to Najib, and that seems understandable though not acceptible. Mubarak members have no reason to be scared off because they're no longer on government payroll. In the final analysis, the people can't be fooled. And we shall see this in the not too distant future. And how will history judge us ?
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