Umno needs ‘game-changer’ to ‘share nation’?

DEC 23 — Umno has done it again. Yes, even worse than the chest-thumping and brandishing of the keris, Umno leaders have said it all again. Each outdoing the other to inflict greater trepidation in their political nemesis, the opposition parties.

In so doing, Umno has turned “xenophobic”. In their manic phase, they are finally waging war against anything perceived as “non-Umno” and, more despised, ‘anti-Umno’.

Now that the dust has settled, Umno “moderates” (very few) would have wished that it was only a rehearsal of sorts. Likened to a horrendous dream, many would not want to be reminded by it. If only they could rewind or delete the orgy of vitriolic speeches and frenzied antics. It has surely left a very bad taste in the nation’s mouth for a long time to come. But it is too late.

In all fairness, Najib’s speech and the sound bites were mainly of party about to face a “do-or-die” outing in the impending 13th general election (GE). Understandably, it was aimed at heightening party’s diehards and the faithful to be battle-ready.

But beyond those usual rhetoric expected of leaders of all political parties, of whatever ideological persuasions and notably in anticipation of a GE, Umno has inadvertently laid themselves bare in the eyes of all and sundry.

As if its information chief’s rhetoric prior to the general assembly was not sufficient to stoke the siege-mentality that feeds on irrational fear, a current hallmark of the Umno-Malay constituency, speeches of both leaders of the two wings, Youth and Puteri, did not provide much to propel for a new framework of thinking.

Indeed, Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin’s belated effort of forging the concept of generational change does seem alien, and worse still, alienating to many of the rank and file. His talk of rewriting Umno’s political DNA so as to enable the party to unlearn and relearn new realities, was surely beyond the grasp of his Youth Wing leaders, perhaps as well of top party leadership.

Incidentally, when the deputy president of the party chided both wings’ leaders for failing to attract the attention and interest of the Generation Y, it is a veiled critique that KJ’s ideas were, at best, hot air. Failing to connect with Gen Y surely smacks of an inability to understand them in the first place, making a rewriting of Umno’s political DNA or a generational change sound so aloof and academic.

In all fairness, KJ could conversely have been blunt if only he had the courage to speak out against party’s top leaders. KJ could have taken a pot-shot at Muhyuddin Yassin’s own antics and his pathetic posturing on race-relation and Malay supremacy, which has time and again placed Umno Youth and Puteri Umno in a compromising situation and, hence, perceived as less “sexy” and attractive to the Gen-Y. If only “generational issues” of this nature be first understood, it helps political organizations to thrive.

That aside, the nation was still willing to give Umno and Najib Razak a chance to prove their worth. The onus was on them to convince the rest of the nation that Umno has what it takes to redeem this failing nation. It was their show and all eyes were on them. Umno could have showcased all the good sides of Umno and that only Najib’s Umno understands what it takes to lead and “To Share This Nation”!

But, alas, for reasons only known to them, in much the same way the Auditor-General’s report has nuked Najib’s 2012 Election Budget, Umno has torpedoed any chance of their re-invention. In the face of a major watershed of the 13th GE, Najib and Umno’s top leaders have miserably succumbed to playing to the bigger gallery of the Malay assembly.

The reaction of Dr Mohd Asri Zainal Abidin, the former Mufti of Perlis, who was back to attend the Umno GA from a short stint at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, perhaps said it all. At this critical crossroads, he opined that Umno has failed to bring new ideas to match the hopes of the rakyat. Other analysts were more unfriendly, perhaps more caustic, in their critiques.

Faced with a litany of unending woes and a nation divided, Najib has failed to show he is in control of it all.  Umno top leaders, Najib included, were driving the party faithful into frenzy by manufacturing stories that the Malays were besieged and victimised, and turning their political nemesis convenient “bogeymen”. Literally none were spared.

Given that overarching backdrop, the usually-visionary party president diminished into obscurity; in his place, a “street-fighter” of sorts. He lost sight of the bigger picture of convincing the world that only Umno could lead in “Sharing the Nation”. He lost his Midas touch of a statesman; perhaps he never had one.

Najib’s speech of a “game-changer” then sounded so hollow and far-fetched. Although he elaborated why Umno was capable of meeting challenges throughout its historical development, he failed to highlight what it takes to be a real “game-changer”.

Najib rightly touched on three pertinent areas or elements that now require a “game-changer” – the new media, new political reality and new thinking among voters. But not unlike KJ, it was more hot air; products of a shadowy foreign operative to merely burnish his dented image both locally and internationally.

A “game-changer”, simply put, is one who is able to think out of the box and come out with new and different ideas that stand out from the crowd. A game-changer is a leader who provides the group what it cannot do for itself. He or she leads, instead of being led.

Najib, unfortunately, is no epitome of a “game-changer” anyway. If anything, he is the anti-thesis of it.  Similarly, Umno, which has long fossilised and is perhaps incapable of reinvention, is acutely in need of a “game-changer”. You can’t give what you don’t have!

What Najib failed to realise and elaborate in his speech was what it takes to truly be a “game-changer”. If only Najib could have the audacity to grab the bull by its horns and tell all the Umno warlords that Umno must reform before it can transform, half the battle could have been won.

Reformation must be wide-ranging in all sectors: politically, economically and socio-legally. It must cut across the various levels; structurally, fundamentally and in fact breaking through on the realm of world-views. It must transcend beyond rhetoric and lip-service to dispel distrust and contempt.

For a start, Najib must further pronounce that if Umno is to reinvent itself, it must debunk the supremacist ideology of Malay Supremacy or Ketuanan Melayu and embrace the “Ketuanan Rakyat” or “Supremacy of the People”.

It is not about competing with Pakatan Rakyat but more about understanding the demands of New Politics. It is not merely about tweaking policies or plagiarising it. It demands a total substantive approach; not merely a formative one. We already have an overdose of the latter.

Umno top guns must break the shackles of their own making — the perverted version of “Race, Religion and Royalty — and truly embrace the rule of law, constitutionalism of the Federal Constitution and above all, justice. It is premised on a vibrant and functional democracy.

The fact that Najib could embrace Pekida the very next day after the Umno GA and assure it that Malay survival is guaranteed, betrays Najib’s shallowness and downright naivety. It makes a huge mockery and a farce of his 1-Malaysia clarion, when Najib was seen widely grinning with the ultra-Malay group Pekida.

Going by the performance of Najib and his spate of flip-flopping, he is now deemed to be following closely the foot-step of his immediate predecessor if not much worse.

His deafening silence on Sharizat Jalil’s NFC fiasco, his lukewarm commitment on his recent political and legal reforms, namely the disgraceful passing of the Peaceful Assembly Act 2011, is living testimony of gross mismanagement of the nation.

The latest zigg-zagging on the new civil service pay scheme (SBPA) is indeed laughable.

Again, the question is asked, has Najib what it takes to lead and “share this nation”?

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.