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Is there a problem with the newly appointed UMNO division leaders?

THE NEW UMNO PRESIDENT, DATO' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, appointed 190 divisional leaders nine days ago (22 November 2003), ahead of the UMNO elections, so they would be in place when general election beckons. The UMNO supreme council backed him to the hilt. A "lengthy process" of "more than two months" preceded it. It is the best team in the circumstances. " We hope (UMNO) members would not object," he said, adding that "we have not done this in a cincai-cincai (lackadisical) manner." The list ensures the best for the party, "not for any individual, group or gang." While they may be the best available, they are not necessarily candidates in the general election. There will be no discussion about it. The supreme council decision is final. "We cannot please every one but we must hold on to party unity and discipline," he said.

The UMNO division leaders are elected in party elections every third year, as 165 of them are. Pak Lah, still acting UMNO president, could not act firmly and cut the rot within the UMNO divisions. The division leaders, by and large, have their divisions under control, and any attempt to dislodge them is at the president's risk. So he shuffled the pack after 25 new UMNO divisions were added after the dilineation of the constituencies. All would have to claw their way back to permanence after the UMNO divisional elections, but that is a while yet. He dropped five - four in Kelantan and one in Penang - shifted others around, and revealed the mess in UMNO by appointing several to head more than one division. He gets around it to insist the new division leaders should not expect to be candidates. This goes against tradition, the one who is not the exception than the rule. The five dropped cannot now be candidates. If they could, why were they dropped? There is on the face of it no evidence of the lengthy consultations. If there were, they would have been more changes. It is this party unity and discipline that is now at risk after the changes.

If he wanted the changes, he should have appointed fresh faces at least to mean what he says when he promises to rejuvenate UMNO to what it once was. As it is, he has done nothing of that. He gives the impression, by these appointments, that he is unsure of himself, does not want to take the UMNO divisional leaders head on, and did it in the two states where it did not matter: Kelantan is under the control of PAS, and likely to remain so after the general election; and Penang, which he controls, where he tinkered with an irrelevant appointment. Permatang Pauh is not yet an UMNO stronghold. It is (was) the stronghold of one Anwar Ibrahim, whose very name spreads shivers down the spine of many an UMNO leader in Penang. A change there would not make a difference. He did not consider any changes in Trengganu where the UMNO liaison chief, who is, in the view of the state UMNO, irrelevant, did not want any changes. He was right there. Any changes would have led to an open revolt. And that in a state controlled by the opposition PAS. So he played it safe when he should have gone in with guns blazing. This could redound on him. Nor in states where he should have: Selangor, Perak, Kedah, Perlis, Negri Sembilan, for instance.

UMNO is unhappy with the changes. There is no avenue for it to make its views known. But where once they would keep quiet for a larger goal, today they have no qualms about what they fell or think. In the usual UMNO meeting points - the warongs, the tea stalls, the meeting places dotted around the country. And egged on by others who were once UMNO members and who do not care for it. Which is why UMNO leaders now have to exhort its members that all is above board. The UMNO youth leader, Dato' Hishamuddin Hussein, said it is in his usual combative way. It did not still the opposition. Now two UMNO vice president, no less, repeat the same message. Tan Sri Muhiyuddin Yassin, who is also domestic trade and consumer affairs minister, insists only a "small" number is unhappy at the new UMNO division leaders. Tan Sri Muhammad Taib said UMNO would tolerate the dissatisfied and the disgruntled, but if they support the Opposition as a result they would face disciplinary action. The UMNO information chief, Tan Sri Megat Junid Megat Ayob, is philosophical for no rhyme or reason: "If we change there are problems, if we don't make changes there are problems. So we take the middle road, we make several changes here and there wherever necessary."

So UMNO is now told the changes were done not after long consultations, as Pak Lah insists, but "here and there wherever necessary". The Kelantan changes were made to the whim and fancies of its liaison chief, Dato' Mustapha Mohamed. He removed those he could not work with, and any who would even mildly support the only UMNO leader with any credibility left in Kelantan: Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. Dato' Mustapha has a problem which reduces his political role in the state, especially when he is touted as the UMNO mentri besar if it captures the state government after the election: his wife is not a Kelantanese, does not speak the dialect, and already has problems about it with the palace as a consequence. UMNO Kelantan fights on two fronts: one to reduce Tengku Razaleigh's influence, and defeat PAS. It is a tall order. Especially since it makes enemies of those who could help turn the tide. Pak Lah is playing it cool, does not yet want to rock the boat, but this was when he should have. It would at least have brought those who think he is a wimp - many who think so - to come around to his side. He needs all the help he can muster. The coming months would not be easy.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my