Umno, a law unto itself — The Malaysian Insider

MARCH 18 — Here’s the thing. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Take Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam’s status for instance. The Umno disciplinary panel found him unfit to contest the party elections but the party elders feel he is more than qualified to remain Melaka Chief Minister.

It makes you wonder at the double standards. He is not good enough to be a senior leader within the party because his agents breached campaign rules. But he is good enough to be chief executive of a state.

Veteran opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said as much in his Facebook status line this morning, “ WHAT?? Not fit to contest as Umno Deputy President but fit to continue as Malacca CM??”

For others, it smacks of a compromise to keep the popular Umno vice-president and his followers happy.

“This is a grand design, something like a bargain,” Datuk Kadar Shah Sulaiman said yesterday about the Umno action against Ali, adding the decision was made in fear that his supporters may walk out of the party.

Former party president Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had no such compunction when he cut short Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s meteoric rise and challenge to him by sacking the deputy president in 1998 on corruption and sodomy charges.

Ali’s only consolation is that he is left with his party and government posts. And not further than that although the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has selectively investigated money politics within the dominant Malay nationalist party.

The bigger question is incoming Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak’s willingness to take on the Herculean task of cleaning Umno’s Stygian stables.

He has said as much to clean up Umno and Dr Mahathir has also put in his two sens’ worth but the disciplinary panel’s actions have shown to be just a sop to the baying calls to rid the party of corruption.

The action yesterday to bar Ali, warn Khairy Jamaluddin and clear Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo speak volumes about Najib’s ability to be an agent of change. Particularly his statement that Ali remains the Melaka chief minister.

It shows that he and others believe that Umno is a law unto itself, scripting its succession plans and leadership in a cabal rather than allowing democracy to flourish within the party and in the country.

Then again, Malaysia has had that since independence.

Umno does not need the non-Malays - not even need Sabah and Sarawak to rule Malaysia

Excerpt from Malaysia Today - THE CORRIDORS OF POWER -"It's in the arithmetic, stupid" by Raja Petra Kamarudin

[...] Yes, this is the song Umno has been singing since the 8 March 2008 general election. Malay political power had eroded, argues Umno. And once the 30 or more non-Malay Members of Parliament cross over and Pakatan Rakyat forms the new federal government, the Malays will lose political power.

In an Umno Johor Convention a couple of months ago, they spoke about how they regret giving citizenship to the immigrants on 31 August 1957. Now that these immigrants have been granted citizenship, they have demonstrated ingratitude by voting for the opposition. These immigrants should never have been given citizenship, argued speaker after speaker. And Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah were guests of honour in this Convention.

You could see Tengku Razaleigh cringe, as if in great pain, on hearing this. He knew that Barisan Nasional suffered its most humiliating performance on 8 March 2008 because of exactly this. Such statements are not going to help. It will just make matters worse.

Umno played the race card to the hilt in the run-up to the recent general election. And it is still doing so until now, as the Umno Bukit Bendera Division Chief Datuk Ahmad Ismail has shown. They still refer to Malaysian-born Chinese and Indians as immigrants. They still call the Chinese and Indians ungrateful squatters. They still ask the Chinese and Indians to go back to China and India, though all these people were born in Malaysia and not in any other country.

In a PPP Convention in Melaka, held before the 8 March 2008 general election, the Umno Vice-President and Chief Minister told the 1,000 or so Indians that Umno does not need the non-Malays. They do not even need Sabah and Sarawak, said Ali Rustam. Umno has ruled Malaysia for 50 years without the non-Malays, or the people from Sabah and Sarawak, and they can continue to do so another 50. [...]