Md. Hasan said at the opening of the UMNO General Assembly yesterday that UMNO needs to be strengthened for it to continue to play a major role in serving the electorate. This after the party, and Mohamad himself in person, had declined to contest the PD bye-election next month. So what's the raison d'etre for the existence of UMNO, if not to offer itself as a representative of the electorate ? Not contesting smells of cowardice. Or other more sinister motives. The fact that Anwar had balatantly abused the electoral system in the pursuit of a personal agenda gives UMNO even more reason to fight in PD. Under the circumstances, Mohamad's words are hollow.
It's not the structural strength of UMNO that's problematic. It's the mindset. If UMNO doesn't start studying its spectacular loss at GE 14, the disintegration won't stop. And one way a new perspective can help it is to get a fresh set of top leaders. The 80% of the current leadership that comes from the Najib & co cannot bring the change required. Yes, the current crop of leaders can change their mentality, but that looks highly unlikely. They'll help destroy UMNO by keeping Najib in spite of the overwhelming evidence of his wrong-doing. UMNO had done this before. Onn Jaafar was replaced, and UMNO became stronger. Tunku was replaced, and UMNO became stronger. Tun Razak was replaced (he died in office) and UMNO became stronger. Hussein resigned because of ill-health, and Mahathir took over, hung on for 22 years, and kept UMNO strong. He resigned, and UMNO became very strong, winning for BN more than 90% in Parliament and 93 % of the states in GE 11 on 21.3.2004.
Having voluntarily left, Mahathir created the right atmosphere for Dollah to take over, "the new broom" with new expectations, Parliament with 90%, and the states with 93 % was the stamp of approval for BN. But within 4 years ,when the electorate saw the real ineffectual Dollah in action, they gave their stamp of disapproval, and BN got their worst result at the polls up to that point, a 63.1% win in Parliament, a 30% loss. That was the first sign of trouble. Dollah was removed.
But this time UMNO didn't get stronger. Najib took over, and almost from the start began his hanky-panky. So in GE13, his first elections as the PM, BN was given an even worse rebuke by voters, and won less than 60% of Parliament. That was the second bad sign. But it was ignored.
Some brave leaders in the party warned Najib publicly. Instead of being echoed and supported by other concerned party leaders, as happened before, Najib got rid of them. The rest, as they always say, is history. If UMNO had carried out the "operation" to remove the cause of the disease at that time, GE 14 would have had a different outcome.
I told Sainy a couple of days ago that UMNO for a while seemed to have taken drastic steps to change, post-GE 14. It had replaced the Wanita and Pemuda heads. It had even replaced the no. 2. But it came short when it came to the President and the Supreme Council. I said keep them, and say goodbye to UMNO's comeback.
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