PRACTICALLY everyone in Umno advocates party rejuvenation to remain relevant and credible (read prospects for GE14 circa 2018), but it demands this inquiry: what does rejuvenation mean to Umno and how can it be done in such a complex organisation?
This pressing advocacy, including regular harangues from a certain jeremiad ex-PM/president, is a recurring multi-prong outlook but the inclination is to coax very senior leaders past their shelf lives to step down for younger progressives — previously an unwritten requirement but now a gnawing diktat.
Umno is colossally big — 3.47-million membership in the last census administered by a towering corporate-like headquarters — but its inherent problem in its 68-year history is obviously not growth, administration, communication or even popularity.
Umno’s problem is, overpoweringly, maturity.
In the most ideological definition of this verb, rejuvenation in Umno is never only the constant renewal of leadership but also sophistication of its political idealism and pragmatic philosophy to unite and aid the multiracial, multireligious and multicultural masses the party strives earnestly to represent.
The easiest rejuvenation process to comprehend is Umno’s continuous leadership succession that cuts across 13 states/regions, 222 divisions (Umno controls 88 parliamentary constituencies) and tens of thousands of branches — in effect, a super-democratic DNA.
Except for Sarawak, Umno has the most exponential reach across Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah; branches pervade virtually every village and hamlet, even in opposition strongholds where a randomly-thrown stone will likely hit an Umno branch signboard.
Democracy goes overdrive every triennial season — all branches elect new office bearers, then despatch representatives to vote at divisional levels who then cast complex ballots to elect top leadership and put people in the three wings and supreme council, Umno’s governing body.
The same can’t be said of other parties, allies or rivals. Umno, by its sprawling physicality alone, acts as a “nervous system” that interconnects machinery of all sizes and purpose across state lines.
Umno thus, does invests splendidly in creating opportunities in business, employment and education, and instrumental in international activism, charity and altruism, core ideologies that continues unhinged because it is the Umno DNA. But in the rejuvenation debate, the key inquest is that Umno has straggled in maturity if “warlordism” that operates money politics to buy votes and power pervades.
Explaining why these warlords cling on as if their positions are dynastic heirlooms generates a simple inference: the influence, connections and contracts are just too seductive. It explains why in a stiff divisional leadership contest, a “fight-to-the-death” is a battle as intense as gladiators combating in a mixed-martial arts fight.
Warnings, even strict disciplinary enforcement, could not solvedefeat the problem, so the solution could be ironic — Umno’s democratic superstructure that established the juggernaut it is today may be the Achilles heel that needs a corrective procedure. Proposals of term limits to cut down divisional leaders’ tenure are practical though what the limits are — two to three three-year terms perhaps — haven’t been rationalised.
The problem of young, able leaders getting the stick from divisional warlords can be circumvented too — direct recruitment by headquarters, straightforward enough to enforce but the fact remains that “warlordism” is a rooted conundrum.
The tendency to clobber rather than engagingengage rivals extend to the top: every aspiring Umno leader consider a supreme council seat more valuable than a cabinet or state government prize because in the council, major Federal Government policies and projects gestate, giving members a valuable edge.
The decentralisation of voting from delegates at the assembly to across-the-board divisional ballots neutralised somewhat the big spenders but still, the rule has not eradicated the delinquencies.
Umno must resolve to make battling for posts unattractive — a divisional election or a supreme council seat must not come with the guarantee of top, lucrative government postings or a shot at winning lucrative contracts to reciprocate support.
Use the American president’s style of filling up his cabinet: restrain party appointments, hire outsiders or reputable professionals to check over-ambition or the mentality that being in the cabinet/state Exco/supreme council is the ticket to great wealth and power.
A downside to this rule? Umno’s top leaders may lose backing from these warlords who will invariably campaign for someone adequately unethical to promise even greater spoils of victory.
It’s a vicious cycle, no doubt, but the trade-off of ignoring these tough choices is unpleasant: the electorate, in particular the Malay base, is steadily frustrated by the antics of these warlord wannabes.
The perception is that their votes, especially from a new generation of youngsters/voters, can be diverted to the Opposition — no less afflicted by such “warlordism” buttressed by Orwellian obnoxiousness.
But as the party in power, Umno will inevitably invite the overcritical examination of the party’s ways, means and execution of its authority. All it needs is to be tempered with ethical conviction.