UMNO came into existence on political platform of fighting for Malays’ interest.

It has ruled the country for more than 50 years by convincing majority of Malays to support it.

Umno’s very relevance lies in Ketuanan Melayu.

The last election 8th March 09 delivered the message that this was no more the case. The Pakatan Rakyat proved the case that multi racial support is essential for political success.

But how does UMNO “kostan”?

So their advisers/strategists come out with something like ‘1 Malaysia’ and the new administration under Najib supposedly reaches out for all Malaysians under this motto.

There is however a contradiction here: if 1 Malaysia stands for all Malaysians [whose interests are now to be promoted] what then is relevance of UMNO? (If I Malaysia is for all Malaysians then what is UMNO – United Malaysian National Organisation?; what about about MCA – Malaysian Club for All?? Or MIC – Malaysian Integrated Congress???)

The moment BN main component parties veer away from race based appeal they face a political identity crisis. They don’t know what they are anymore. That is why they cannot be sincere in what the motto says. This lack of sincerity further compounds the problem by criticisms of “cakap tak serupa bikin”!

Race has always been the political agenda.

Playing the race card is admittedly no more as credible, convincing and effective as 308 political tsunami showed – but if one takes away the race card, then what is there left of its agenda to leverage an appeal?

When for over 50 years the entire structural edifice of the Party has been constructed around race, when one is forced by sudden reality to change and embrace 1 Malaysia for all one – and to mean it – one is immediately faced with the prospects of staring at nothingness at the space around which one’s whole system is based.

This is a real dilemma.

What UMNO & other communal parties and their stakeholders need is some bright idea from someone of how they could make the “turn” from communal race card flashing to an inclusivist platform for all without disappearing overight, losing power due to utter irrelevance.

If the aim is to stay relevant and maintain power then UMNO & BN’s parties are confronted with only 2 basic choices:

First – not only continue doing but do more of what they have been doing all these while that they have been criticised for and suffered loss of votes – ie more money politics to buy votes, double up the race rhetorics yet maintain multiracial image by cultivating the other subservient partners in the Barisan Nasional coalition getting minor concessions and simply countering the Opposition by unscrupulously raising the spectre of political instability, unrest and extremism blah blah or clamp down on Internet, civil rights and double up repression….

However if the existing mode were unpalatable and cannot work, then there must be a major upheaval involving the alternative of dismantling of all communal parties like UMNO/MCA & MIC and their substitution of one monolithic multiracial party under one Barisan Nasional Party – something like the Anwar’s Parti KeAdilan Rakyat type of composition.

The major upheaval is of course not easy.

What about UMNO’s vast corporate assets or power share arrangements?

It is likely beyond them to think through this problem.

But whats the choice is there? One can’t be groping neither here nor there, coming up with motto that does not mean much and has been ridiculed, responding piece meal, case by case, to every challenge without knowing which way the general direction to go – to fix the problem.

The problem is that when you say one race is Master of this land the natural implication is that citizens of other races are servants – because there is only Master – Servant relationship and no other in betweens. How does this kind of idea hope to maintain acceptance in times like now? Get real.

One can’t expect 40% of other races contributing to the well being of the national house to remain servants in which for the price of having a room to stay and be sheltered from the elements, to be relegated to status of servants, hewing wood, doing marketing, boiling water, sweeping the floor and wiping the window panes, working in the kitchen to prepare the meal so that the masters can have the first bite and leaving the leftovers to the servants when they retire to the living room to enjoy their deserts and watch a good ASTRO movie show.

Let me put it another way using analogy of a household : if one set of people are masters, and you say the other set are not exactly servants, then what are they? Guests and sojourners?

Cintanegara’s Rambutan-neighbour analogy is the kind of thinking derived from the kind of ideology taught by BTN. But from whose thoughts does BTN construct such an ideology of the “Social Contract”? To get the answer read Tun Dr Mahathir’s “The Malay Dilemma”. This book was the clarion call to prod the “original race” to preserve their social contract position against “the immigrant races” by the justification of wealth transfer via the NEP (in the anticipated scenario of an expanding national cake (“economy”) from the “Haves” defined as “the immigrant races” to the “Have Nots” defined as the original race. This ideology is the basis upon which the Malay Crony-Capitalist class was/is created by TDM’s administration which believes that the transfer of wealth was best done through selected industry captains in GLCs and corporates identified as “capable” and hence favoured by TDM and his then trusted finance architect Tun Daim. Thus this way TDM earned allegiance as the true Malay nationalist entitling his long 22 year rule second only by world standards to Cuba’s Dr Fidel Castro.

So if one wants to end and revamp BTN’s programmes is there any doubt that it will be resisted by its chief ideologue who came out in its defence? He is afterall defending his legacy of Mahathirism. He was unhappy with previous premier AAB becuase he thought that his tenure – and weakness- conduced to ascendency of his nesmesis Anwar and PR that would put an end to the legacy faster. Today the biggest controversy around which national debate rages is the relevance of this legacy and all that it stands for, and whether it is doing permanent damage to the country or good. Whilst many of us have consensus that it has caused corruption to be flagrant and races to be divided and nation to fall behind in competitiveness, there are many others like Cintanegara/Kassim Amat who know nothing else with which to substitute their world view and hence depend on this ideology as their crutch for confidence and hope. Before stepping down the main architect of the crutch lamented “Oh I can’t change this crutch mindset, its my failure in not being able to do so”. However every thing he says after stepping down is still in support of the very ideology that constructed this crutch/subsidy mentality, and the BTN that sows it in the minds of the young so that they could continue it as future leaders of the country.
Today in the evening of his life he has a glimpse of the contradictions inherent in capitalist exploitation within and under the excuse of his racial formula that lone survives after the Apatheid Regime of South Africa has been deconstructed. He witnessed the growing disenchantment by the Malay masses against the status quo in recent years resulting a shift of a significant portion of their support in the last political tsunami in 2008. He gets doubly angry because this shift again was in no small way prodded by his nesmesis Anwar through his inclusive ideology espoused by PKR and PR. It is a paradigm shift in thinking that offers little promise of reversal – so that this new “inclusive” political thinking is beginning to affect the existing banner carriers of the Barisan National. Eg – big Guthrie capitalist captain Khalid joined Anwar to be PR Selangor MB; Chua Jui Meng moved over to PKR, Ku Li (comrade in arms to create this Capitalist class via corporatisation of UMNO) now sings different tune, Zaid moved over to PKR and the latest Nazri who relaised that it was better to swing with the ideology of the future. Even advisers of current PM comes with a 1 Malaysia motto (in hijack of Anwar’s agenda) because thats the way to go, for the future of which there’s no turning back. This frightens the octogenarian who perceives the chinks in the amoury of his legacy cracking, and all that he says now is calculated to rally reactionaries (people who prefer status quo to change) and who have vested interest in status quo to resist and fight change. He is prepared to use all powers of influence under his disposal to be king maker to replace any king who does not perpetuate the legacy that promises protection from accountability of whatever that has been done, right or wrong. So when everyone calls for change, everyone should also know who is main person resisting it.