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So how can Umno say that the political power of the Malays eroded on 8 March 2008? It actually increased. Never mind it increased by one only Malay Member of Parliament. The important point is the Malays are not losing political power.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Yesterday, Muhammad son of Muhammad chaired an Umno Selangor meeting to discuss the party’s disastrous loss of the state to the opposition Pakatan Rakyat. Someone from Umno PJ Utara stood up to speak and said that Umno’s disastrous performance is because of Raja Petra Kamarudin. The speaker from the Umno division aligned to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad then suggested that the government arrest the man behind Malaysia Today.
I am honoured the all-powerful Umno would think that a puny website like Malaysia Today can actually demolish the hegemony the ruling party has held over this country since two years before Merdeka, save maybe for a brief period that is now infamously known as the May 1969 era. But the honour I am feeling is overshadowed by the hard on I am enjoying in knowing that Umno still does not get it. Umno has still not awoken to the realisation that it was people’s power, Makhal Sakhti, which caused the political Tsunami on 8 March 2008. It was not about Malaysia Today. It was about the people finally rising up in anger and screaming ‘enough is enough’. That was what hit Umno and Barisan Nasional.
I would like to say just one thing to Muhammad son of Muhammad. Come get me. Go make your police report if you feel this will solve Umno’s problems. Then come and get me if you think this will help Umno win back the people’s support. But you are barking up the wrong tree. And if you still don’t wake up, the second Tsunami will hit Umno, resulting in the nails being hammered into the coffin. Yes, Umno is now lying in a coffin. And it will be Umno itself that will be nailing the lid on the coffin. And Malaysia Today will be very happy to provide the hammer to help hammer down these nails. Hell, Malaysia Today’s readers will even pay for the coffin if you wish, Muhammad son of Muhammad. Just send me the bill. Malaysia Today will help raise enough money to pay for a gold-laced coffin.
Two days ago, they organised a meeting of members of the Umno Veterans’ Club and Mubarak, the ex-Barisan Nasional Wakil Rakyat’s Association. Read that again. Umno Veterans and has-been Wakil Rakyat from Barisan Nasional, all people with no teeth, both literally and figure of speech. And these over-the-hill Umno people and ex-Wakil Rakyat lamented about the ‘loss of Malay political power’. They also repeated, over and over again, about the same thing happening once before in May 1969, which resulted in the bloody ‘May 13’.
Aiyah, here we go again. Balek, balek, May 13. And what ‘loss of Malay political power’ are they talking about?
The best ever performance of Barisan Nasional was in 2004 when they won 91-92% of the seats in Parliament. How many seats did the Malay Members of Parliament win in 2004? Umno won 110, PAS 9 and PKR 1. That makes it a total of 120. This time around, Umno won 78, PAS 23 and PKR 20 (out of 31). That makes it a total of 121 Malay Members of Parliament. The best ever, in 2004, was only 120 Malay Members of Parliament but on 8 March 2008 the number of Malay Members of Parliament increased.
So how can Umno say that the political power of the Malays eroded on 8 March 2008? It actually increased. Never mind it increased by one only Malay Member of Parliament. The important point is the Malays are not losing political power. The Malays are actually seeing an increase in political power. That is the issue Umno is playing up and that argument has just been demolished. It should be the Chinese who should be screaming because it is the Chinese who saw their ‘political power’ getting eroded in favour of the Malays and Indians.
As the New Straits Times said in its Editorial yesterday: stop moaning, Umno. And stop all this talk about Malay political power getting eroded and about the same thing happening in May 1969 and about this resulting in May 13. That kind of talk was what caused Barisan Nasional to lose five states, 10 out of 11 Parliament seats in Kuala Lumpur, and its two-thirds majority in Parliament -- and which, for sure, will ensure that Umno and Barisan Nasional will be put to sleep for good if it does not stop moaning and playing the blame game.
Okay, maybe Umno no longer enjoys the monopoly on ‘Malay political power’. Maybe that ‘Malay political power’ is now shared with PAS and PKR. So three instead of one are now enjoying ‘Malay political power’. That is not important. That is in fact good because monopolies are never in the interest of the Rakyat. The important thing is Malay political power has not eroded. It has in fact increased. So we don’t need another May 13 to solve this ‘problem’ as the Umno Veteran Club members suggest. There is no problem to solve.
If Umno needs to fight with someone then go fight with MCA. MCA lost 50% of its seats. MIC, Gerakan and PPP did even worse. So go fight with them also. And it is the Malay and Indian voters and not the Chinese voters who must be blamed for Barisan Nasional’s loss because without the Malays and Indians, with just Chinese votes alone, MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP would not have done so badly.
Even Rafidah Aziz admits that, going by the saluran, Barisan Nasional did not get the support of the young voters. Read that again: the young voters did not support Barisan Nasional. Is it not Pemuda Umno, Puteri Umno and Putera Umno who are supposed to work on the young voters? This was what they were set up for. And, in every election, Pemuda Umno is the backbone of the election campaign.
How could Barisan Nasional lose the support of the young voters if Pemuda Umno had done its job? Should not the Ketua Pemuda Umno then be made to pay for this election fiasco? And was it not the Ketua Pemuda Umno’s keris-waving and keris-kissing stage-play that contributed to much of this loss of support, in particular the Chinese support? Most important of all, why is the Pengarah Pilihanraya being spared criticism?
Umno, in fact, wants to reward the Pengarah Pilihanraya by making him the new Prime Minister. He screws up and they want to make him Prime Minister. Is this how Umno solves its problems and wins back the support of the voters?
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STOP MOANING, UMNO
An unprecedented editorial urges Umno to 'get on with the job'
Malaysia's main pro-government newspaper lashed out yesterday at the ruling party for its recent election losses, describing its members as boors and louts in an unprecedented front-page editorial. United Malays National Organisation (Umno), should get on with the task of running the country, the New Straits Times (NST) added.
The NST is indirectly owned by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's Umno, the dominant party in the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition that has been in power for 51 years. In the March 8 general elections, BN lost its traditional two-thirds majority in the 222-member Parliament, conceding 82 seats to the opposition. BN also lost five of Malaysia's 13 states to the opposition in its worst showing in history. But Umno has since been "bickering, pointing fingers, baying for vengeance and doing everything imaginable except rolling up its sleeves and getting down to the work of governing", the editorial said.
"People are getting fed up with Umno's moaning and groaning. The truth is that the people have long been disgusted with the kind of boorish and loutish behaviour that Umno leaders have exemplified because of their grip on power since independence in 1957."
Political analysts were stunned by this unusual outburst from a newspaper that is regarded as a party mouthpiece. Ms Tricia Yeoh, director of the Centre for Public Policy Studies think tank, said it was difficult to say who directed the editorial but suggested it could have been Abdullah's camp, which wants the bickering to stop before a party congress in December when Abdullah is expected to stand for re-election as party president. "They need the time and space between now and December to do their job. If they don't, there will be a bigger blame game when December comes," she said.
The editorial listed some events that led to the plummeting popularity of the party, which claims to represent Malaysia's majority Malays. The newspaper cited the party's general assembly last year, when youth-wing leader Hishammuddin Hussein waved a kris (traditional Malay dagger) and warned minorities not to question Malay rights.
"Brandishing the kris was hurtful to the non-Malays, but the party leadership did nothing to take the Umno youth chief to task," it said. The leadership also did not stop the racist and inflammatory rhetoric of the delegates in 2006, it said.
The destruction of a Hindu temple by the local authorities last year angered Indian voters, and yet Umno leaders again kept quiet. The editorial said Mr Abdullah "is now paying for these and other acts of omission, including the undeliverable promises of change that he made when he first became Prime Minister in 2003".
Asking for Mr Abdullah's resignation, as dissidents have demanded, is not the solution, the NST said, in reference to former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who is leading the anti-Abdullah campaign. "Mr Abdullah should be allowed to get on with it. But all the worms crawling out of the Umno woodwork - especially the retired and those with shelf lives past due who have found new breath in their calls for a party coup - won't let him," said the NST. – Today Online
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