UMNO's Sunday meeting fails to address problem

Wahid Yunus

April 8, 2008

PM’s speech to UMNO grassroot leaders on Sunday was more blame game than introspection

When Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said that he would meet grassroot Umno leaders to talk to the about the result of the 12th General Assembly, there were high hope that the backbone of Barisan Nasional would be introspective and merciless upon itself.

It was the first opportunity for the whole party to look in the mirror and understand where they went wrong in the General Election and prove to Malaysians that their existence is to serve the people but from what has been reported, it was reduced to a childlike blame-game.

“Pak Lah Serang Balik”, said Umno-centric political newsportal Agenda Daily. “PM Blames Saboteur for BN Setback,” was Malaysiakini’s headline. Mainstream newspaper, The Star said: “Abdullah Hits out at his Critics”. The New Straits Times took the same theme, saying: “PM fires back at Dr M, Ku Li and Anwar”. The Sun said: “We were Sabotaged, Says PM”.

“Sabotaj punca prestasi buruk - Kalau bukan kerana faktor itu, BN tidak hilang majoriti dua pertiga – Abdullah,” was Utusan Malaysia’s headline while Berita Harian’s headline “Abdullah selar pengkritik” hardly deviated from the theme.

While sabotage is an important factor that needs to be addressed, it is even more important that UMNO understands the unhappiness that led to members turning against their own party. If indeed sabotage is the reason for the massive loss of votes in the General Election, then it is clear confirmation that that the party leadership has indeed lost the respect of the grassroots.

Sabotage, in any situation, is a clear signal that members feel alienated from the organization, that they have been abandoned and they see sabotage as the only way out of the rut that they are in.

The Prime Minister clearly identified the symptom but obviously failed to understand the reason for the unhappiness, he failed to spot the mistakes made by the party and its leadership that caused this widespread discontent.

More disheartening, is the fact that he blamed the members for the losses instead of asking them why they had sabotaged and learnt the cause of their unhappiness.

The Sunday meeting was a closed door meeting and the reports were all based on the post-meeting Press Conference so we cannot say for sure exactly what happened in the gathering but surely the leaders would have distilled the essence of the meeting for the waiting Media and judging from the reports it appeared that the PM spoke and the members listened.

According to newspaper reports, at the end of the speech no one asked any questions. Now if you have been a teacher long enough you will know that the lack of question is usually a sign that the students were either disinterested or did not understand what was said in class or has heard it all before. Very rarely it is a sign that they were well engaged.

If a speech is interesting and caught the imagination of the listeners it would have triggered a whole bunch of further questions and clarifications and there are certainly a lot of unanswered questions about UMNO’s performance at the election.

If those who attended did not object to Abdullah saying that the party was sabotaged, then it was probably a sign of their admission and yet none of the leaders seemed the least bit worried that they are staring at mutiny in the face.

They seemed happy that the captain told the crew that he knew they had back-tabbed him and was not concerned that they do not know why the crew turned on them.

If we recall correctly, reports from the ground were rosy everywhere just as it should be if a sabotage is about to take place and again it was all rosy in that hall on Sunday.

The meeting was the perfect opportunity for the leadership to show why the Extraordinary General Meeting called for by Kelantan Umno chieftain Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah is unnecessary.

All they had to do was allow the 10,000 or so grassroot leaders to voice their opinion and vent their anger and the leadership can then say that they have heard and will take action. That would have negated any need for an EGM but now it seems that the EGM is more necessary than ever.

This lack of self criticism and examination is worrying because it will further alienate members who are already unhappy with the leadership. Who is to say how many percent of the UMNO membership is unhappy with the leadership but certainly there is unhappiness and, like Pak Lah said, they sabotaged the party.

During the meeting, the PM also launched attacks on his critics like Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tengku Razaleigh while taking swipes at the de facto leader of the Opposition, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

This is understandable, Pak Lah is not a saint and would have been angered by their stinging words but this should have been a footnote in the proceedings but from the reports we can see that it was the main dish.

When Pak Lah pointed out the damage that Mahathir did to the Judiciary, freedom of the Press and party democracy, Pak Lah is only making it clear that he has perpetuated the ills and failed to make changes to the system.

In essence all he said is: “He did it too, in fact he was worse than I am.” How is that a defense, much less a self examination?

The calls by his detractors have been clear and in unified chorus; UMNO needs to change with the times to remain relevant but the message from Sunday was this “There is nothing wrong with Umno, we are misunderstood.” – malaysiaaktif.com

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