THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
The pro-Umno Bloggers are on the attack. They are not happy with the just-concluded Umno party election. They were hoping that Mukhriz Mahathir instead of Hishammuddin Hussein would win one of the three Vice-Presidencies.
A. Kadir Jasin is also on the attack (read below). He has repeated what Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has to say about Najib Tun Razak -- which is not at all flattering. But then Kadir Jasin has always been Tun Dr Mahathir’s ‘mouthpiece’. So this is probably not at all surprising.
The issue here is that the son of Tun Hussein Onn won with just a nine-vote lead against the son of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. And they blame the son of Tun Abdul Razak Hussein for this narrow defeat.
This sounds like a proxy war between two dead one-time Malaysian Prime Ministers versus one still alive one-time Prime Minister.
Tengku Abdul Rahman did not like Tun Dr Mahathir. In fact, that is putting it mildly. Tengku Rahman actually hated Tun Dr Mahathir and he once said that Umno would perish at the hands of Tun Dr Mahathir.
And that hatred is mutual. Tun Dr Mahathir played a prominent role in Tengku Rahman’s ouster that saw Tun Razak take over as Prime Minister in 1970. Tun Razak then appointed Tun Dr. Ismail Abdul Rahman as his Deputy and when Tun Dr Ismail died in 1973 Tun Hussein took over.
When Tun Razak died in 1976, Tun Hussein took over as Prime Minister and he reluctantly appointed Tun Dr Mahathir as his Deputy -- because of pressure from the party -- when he would rather have appointed Tun Muhammad Ghazali Shafie as the Deputy instead.
And once Tun Dr Mahathir became the Deputy he made his move to oust Tun Hussein and took over as Prime Minister in 1981.
Since the 1950s Umno has seen power struggles for the top two positions.
First Onn Ja'afar was ousted. Then Tengku Rahman was ousted. Then Tun Razak died before he could be ousted, as did Tun Dr Ismail. Then Tun Ghazali was ousted. Then Hussein Onn was ousted. Then Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Tun Musa Hitam were ousted. Then Tun Abdul Ghafar Baba was ousted. Then Anwar Ibrahim was ousted. Then Tun Dr Mahathir was ousted. Finally, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was ousted.
The only way you could avoid being ousted was to die in office like Tun Razak and Tun Dr Ismail.
So what was the just-concluded Umno party election all about? Was it about bringing change to Umno? Certainly not! It is about who is going to take over as Prime Minister once the son of Tun Razak is forced out of office. Is it going to be the son of Tun Hussein Onn or the son of Tun Dr Mahathir? And he who wins the Umno Vice-Presidency can then prepare himself to take on the Deputy Presidency and from thereon the Presidency of Umno, which also means the Prime Ministership of Malaysia.
So the son of Tun Dr Mahathir did not make the Vice-Presidency. The son of Tun Hussein did. Hence the son of Tun Hussein and not the son of Tun Dr Mahathir would have a better shot at the number two slot -- and thereafter the number one slot.
It is about the son of which ex-Prime Minister will take over once the son of another ex-Prime Minister is successfully ousted from power. This is what the just-concluded Umno party election was all about.
And that man who aspires to take over must be seen as more Malay and more Islamic than his opponents. And has Umno’s history not shown that liberals eventually get ousted in favour of hardliners?
Umno can’t change, say some liberals. Of course Umno can’t change. If Umno does change then the top leaders would get ousted. But will Umno soon become extinct if it does not change? I fear not. I fear that PAS may become extinct instead -- unless it changes course and becomes more Islamic than Umno.
The animal called Umno is about Malay and Muslim supremacy. And unless Najib sees this he would soon join the long list of top Umno leaders who eventually get kicked out.
What happened yesterday was that the Malays have sent the top party leadership a message that Umno is about Malay political power and that there must be no compromise on this matter. And the only way that PAS is going to remain relevant is to become more radical than Umno. That is what yesterday’s Umno party election means.
Welcome to the realm of Malay politics.
Hidup Umno! Hidup Melayu! Hidup Islam!
Source: Malaysia Today
Written by pipspiper
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