Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
May 30, 2011

MAY 30 — I have written so many essays critical of Umno in the past.

Friends asked me why am I still in Umno? How can I write many nasty things about Umno and seemed to get away with it — why haven’t I been hauled up by the Umno disciplinary committee or something and not ticked off? Isn’t there anything good that Umno has done.

Let’s clear one thing first. This is the source of many of Umno’s problems. Some people assigned to themselves the right to determine who should or shouldn’t be in Umno. They then judge others in terms of their thinking and criteria. Pak Lah or any others can’t measure up to Mahathir in many aspects. But they are not necessarily inferior to Mahathir. They are different. They must be judged on objective terms, not the subjective standards of one Mahathir.

Najib doesn’t seem to do things anything right according to Mahathir. The old man is so stressed up and suffers physical debilitations.

The problem worsens to become person-centric. One person determines and defines Umno. Inevitably, the right to be in or out of Umno depends on loyalty to individuals and not on the political ideals, ideas, shared vision and so forth.

The problems become multiplied many fold, when Umno ‘farms’ out the responsibility of sieving and determining leadership material to hired hands outside the party. These are the intellectual hacks and overrated audio visual and print media practitioners who arrogate to themselves the ultimate discretion of how should Umno behave.

Hence there are people who think Umno is the personal kingdom of some people and that the issues of these individuals exist to inherit the kingdom of Umno.

What has Umno become then? It becomes an organisation feudal in nature where its leadership depends on being from the right loins. The leadership in Umno is therefore no different from the method of ascribing extraordinary abilities by being conceived from a buloh betong, materialising from a cow’s vomit or suddenly beamed from across the terrestrial highs to bukit si guntang Mahameru.

From thereon, the majority of Umno suckers pledged eternal loyalty to the blue blood.

This is the earliest symptoms of the inability of Umno to manage success. For over the years, Umno attracts a multitude of thoughts, aggressive and independent minded individuals, a vibrant ward of supporters, personalised political inclinations as success unavoidably do, that its continuity and longevity, depends ultimately on the ability to manage all that diversity.

This, the current crop of leadership spawned unfortunately during the Mahathir years failed to do. Umno has generally failed to spawn ‘elastic’ leadership that is capable of adapting. Instead it has led to the emergence of a leadership hell-bent on preserving freakish control and one opposed to internal transformation.

I can only answer by asking why shouldn’t I be in Umno? Umno isn’t the property of the present crop of Umno leaders. Some of them are there because of some unexpected happenstance. They have the right ‘bins’.

You are bin somebody, therefore you are leadership material. This is a fundamental defect of Umno’s leadership. Which I will continue to offer criticisms.

Secondly, I believe I have done nothing wrong to be the guest of the disciplinary committee. Finally, there are of course many good things that Umno has facilitated, whenever there was good leadership.

There are of course the people whose replies are directed ad hominem.

My personal problems used as weapon to demolish my arguments. My service as a one term Umno ADUN taken as an indication that I have not performed well. To the first approach, it only serves to entrench my conviction that the majority of Umno members and supporters do not have the stuff to win over people with reasoned arguments. I employ the term stuff as a mild description. To the second, I myself can’t defend my track record. You asked my detractors they will give you the answers you desire to serve the purpose by which you set out in the first place — i.e. to look for ‘facts’ that can vilify me.

In the not so distant future I hope to be able to tell you my side of the story. I believe it will show that it is not I who will be found wanting — but we will discover that I am put in an environment where Umno can’t manage success.

This then is the biggest problem with Umno now. It just doesn’t know how to manage success. It can’t because it doesn’t have the right leadership with the right values, the right institutions to manage the overall success that Umno has generated for the country.

It is still a party held back by old tools of the trade unable to deal with new realities. The development brought possible by Umno — general rise in educational level, rising expectations, infusion of new values, new experiences, all are never appreciated to the full by Umno. As a result, it’s a party that has refused to adapt. DS Najib as the current Umno president is now desperately trying to force Umno to adapt. — sakmongkol.blogspot.com

* Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de plume of Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz. He was Pulau Manis assemblyman (2004-2008).