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UMNO leaders scramble for a place in the sun

THE UMNO YOUTH CHIEF, Dato' Hishamuddin Hussein, is three years older than the two score years allowed its members. He was, he declared earlier in the year, a candidate for one of the three vice presidents. As youth chief, he is one by courtesy, and in one sense out of the pecking order. He is joined there by the wanita and puteri chiefs. If he had wanted a life in the UMNO mainstream he has to be vice-president in his own right. But the March general elections, the Pak Lah uncertainties at his huge electoral margin, the rise of the political warlords all put pressure on the UMNO leaders as never before.

Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is returned to office by too wide a margin, and he cannot revamp UMNO or the government as he would have liked. Besides, the opposition within has given notice the old practices on how leaders are selected must make way for new blood. But the UMNO gerontocracy would not allow it. The status quo will remain, where possible. The president and deputy president will be returned unopposed. It is an act of bravado, especially when the UMNO supreme council, the body which makes statements like these, did not call for it. Two gerontocrats, the party secretary-general and soon-to-be Yang Dipertua Negeri (governor) of Malacca, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob, and the acting deputy president, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, took it upon themselves to mislead the party and country.

The March general election, with BN obtaining 90 per cent of the seats in parliament, should have given him an unchallenged ride to the UMNO presidency in September. It did not. It made him more vulnerable than ever. The Opposition within, fractious but united in wanting the keep the new UMNO president within their control, are adamant he would not have an easy ride. Tan Sri Khalil and Dato' Seri Najib have thrown a challenge, daring the UMNO rank-and-file to challenge the UMNO diktat. All it needs to confront it is for one division to break ranks and nominate some one other than Pak Lah for the presidency, and the battle is all but over. For if the two gerontocrats wanted their decision to stick, they should also have ordered all the divisions not to nominate anyone other than Pak Lah and Dato' Seri Najib for the two posts.

This no-contest plan is for Pak Lah's benefit than Dato' Seri Najib's. He started his prime ministership with a reliance on his family for his political needs. But he fell foul of it with his son's role as a chain in the international nuclear weapons black market. His partner in that is now under detention, but few would allow he is clear of it since lesser people have been detained under the Internal Security Act for lesser tenuous links than between the son and the Sri Lankan business man. His son-in-law was another cross he had to bear. His arrogance, in Pak Lah's private office and outside, and his role in the detribalised band of Oxbridge graduates, damaged him further.

But Mr Khairy Jamaludin, 28, is back in the political limelight. After he left his father-in-law's office, he was tipped to head the RM150 billion Khazanah Holdings Berhad. An untimely news leak put paid to that. He is a bright young man, intelligent as they come, but without an understanding of what Malaysia is all about. His original intent to stand for deputy leader of UMNO youth was resisted strongly within the movement. He was then to be part of a ticket with the mentri besar of Selangor, Dato' Seri Khir Toyo and he as deputy. He was forced to back off. Now he is back in the fray. UMNO Youth did not want Dr Khir. And that was that. Now that Dato' Hishamuddin is back in the fray, Mr Khairy has a new lease of life as his deputy.

It is assumed before the race he would be returned unopposed. So would Mr Khairy. The Perak UMNO youth has wholeheartedly embraced him for his ability and leadership qualities, none of which was evident in the various offices and jobs he held in the five years after he graduated. He is selected, so says the Perak UMNO youth chief, not for his youth, nor that he is the prime minister's son-in-law. He did not wish to contest but Perak UMNO youth know in their hearts that he is the 'most' suitable candidate. Lest we forget, it was the same Perak UMNO youth which did not want him earlier. If a man does not want to contest, and said as much as clearly as is possible, he should be allowed to. There are others available. But it is the sign and confusion of the times in UMNO that the horse must not only be dragged to the water but be made to drink. A clear sign, no doubt, that UMNO is democracy and democracy is UMNO.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com