PETALING JAYA, July 1 — Umno committed “hara kiri” by electing Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as president and re-electing 20 supreme council members out of 25, ignoring the reality that Malaysia’s oldest Malay party needed a total shake-up.
Following the devastating and shameful defeat in the recent 9 May general election that saw the entire Barisan Nasional (BN) beaten to “near death” after governing the country since Independence, Umno delegates had decided to just do some “repair works” on the “old and damaged vehicle” rather than a total overhaul that could attract “old and new passengers”.
Zahid’s victory yesterday had actually further split the party rather than unite it, as he managed only to win the hearts and minds of just 99 of the total 191 divisions.
Runner up Khairy Jamaluddin had the vote of 61 divisions, while Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah polled 30.
Zahid did not get a landslide where he could boast of a huge majority to run the party but merely a 51 per cent recognition, which saw the other half of Umno members calling for a total overhaul of the party, not just repair works.
The poll result made Masjid Tanah MP Datuk Mas Ermieyati Shamsudin, who was formerly Puteri Umno chief, leave Umno to become an independent lawmaker with immediate effect.
Party delegates had yesterday understood the situation Umno was in. They needed a new captain who could command not just loyalty, but respect and recognition from party members and outsiders.
However, the election results left them stuck on the old ‘train on the old track with the old co- driver’ since the driver had left.
What they are looking at is “a dark tunnel without a light to guide them out”. Their nightmare
seemed to become reality with Zahid being called to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) tomorrow over the alleged misuse of funds.
In short, elected Umno leaders would be busy fending off charges instead of charting a new course for the party.
Khairy and Tengku Razaleigh had “cried foul” over yesterday’s poll, but it is obvious the matter will be ignored and kept aside under the guise that further agitation may put the party at risk of deregistration.
Dissatisfaction towards the party leadership has been heard loud and clear following BN’s defeat in the 9 May general election and party members at grassroots level had been hankering for a total change of leadership — demanding the whole leadership to be changed.
They wanted a total rebranding and new approaches that could retain loyal members and attract new young recruits while bringing back Malay support, in short, a total evolution of Umno that could fit the new political landscape and environment without erasing previous relevant structures and struggles.
Yesterday’s line-up shocked many grassroots as they were looking at old faces in the leadership from top to bottom — reflecting as alleged by Khairy — that the culture of warlords and money was still alive and kicking.
A delegate who sat at Riverside Cafe at Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) last night lamented: “My friends and I saw the same old people running the show which means the party has gone deeper in the mud of the bed of the ocean which tells us one thing — the ship can never be salvaged.”
Yesterday’s election result shows that Umno leaders are not willing to leave their positions and do not allow or accept new young faces to help re-engineer the party, despite acknowledging that the party needs young and capable leaders.
The current scenario has not only weakened Umno’s chances of making up for the loss of federal power, but killed the party.
Umno has indeed committed “hara kiri”, a practice in Japanese culture spoken about by Prime Minister and former Umno president Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, where people kill themselves as that is preferable to the disgrace of failing to achieve their goals.
And Umno did just that.
