KOMENTAR
OCT 21 — The recent Umno Youth divisional meetings have seen nominations for the new Youth chief taking an unexpected turn. Exco member Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir has left his archrival and current Youth vice-chief Khairy Jamaluddin in his wake by leaping to the lead with 63 nominations whilst Khairy trails with 36. Supreme council member Datuk Khir Toyo is not far behind with 27 nominations and Perlis Umno deputy liaison chief Zahidi Zainul Abidin has only his own division Padang Besar as his sole nominator to be grateful for.
Two key events which unfolded in Umno within the space of a few months have influenced the race to replace the current Youth chief Datuk Hishammuddin Hussein.
Firstly, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced on July 10 that he will hand over power to his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Razak in June 2010 after massive rumblings and ramblings among the party rank-and-file following the results of the March 8 general election.
Many elements within and outside of Umno have blamed Abdullah and to a certain extent Khairy for the disastrous electoral performance suffered by Umno and the Barisan Nasional.
Abdullah, in a magnanimous show of “leadership by example”, has gentlemanly offered to step down in a long drawn out transition plan. This has turned Khairy into unfortunate collateral damage in the political manoeuvres led by vice-president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to unseat Abdullah. Umno Youth leaders have been distancing themselves from Khairy ever since.
Grassroots leaders in Umno do not want to be seen with anyone whom they view as living on borrowed time. When a leader loses power or is perceived to be on the wane, his or her supporters will jump off the bandwagon and exit at the next stop where they perceive power is heading to.
This happened to Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah after he lost, albeit narrowly, in the party elections of 1987, as well as to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who was unceremoniously dismissed in 1998, and Dr Mahathir too lost his core supporters within Umno after he stepped down in 2003. This time around it is Abdullah's time, and his so-called hardcore supporters are abandoning ship to jump on the trawler that bears the name Najib on it.
Secondly, Abdullah's announcement on Oct 8 that he will not be defending his presidency, indicating that he gave in to the groundswell of discontent among the Umno grassroots which was seemingly “created” by the political power play of Muhyiddin and Dr Mahathir.
This was almost the killer blow that Dr Mahathir and his son Mukhriz had been eagerly awaiting for. To them, Khairy will not be able to withstand the tsunami within Umno and will be left out of the Youth race totally.
The outcome of the divisional meetings has shown an obvious trend and the herd mentality within Umno. President — Najib, deputy president — Muhyiddin, vice-president — Hishammuddin and to a certain extent Datuk Zahid Hamidi and Datuk Shafie Apdal; and the Youth chief — Mukhriz. This is Najib's “cai tan” — list of leaders aligned or perceived to be aligned to Najib.
Rightly or wrongly, many people perceive that with the fall of Abdullah, so goes Khairy. However, not everyone within the Youth wing is willing to give Mukhriz a blank cheque in his pursuit for the Youth chief's post. After some 120-plus Youth divisional meetings, Mukhriz has only managed to capture barely half of the nominations. In the face of the supposedly “winds of change” within Umno and the Youth wing, Khairy has been able to hold his own and is just a few nominations shy from breaching the threshold of 39 nominations to be eligible to run for the Youth chief's post. Nevertheless, Mukhriz has zoomed to the lead in the number of nominations at a ratio of around 2:1 to Khairy, with only 60-odd Youth divisional meetings to go.
It is indeed troubling that a Youth wing of an established political organisation in the country is evaluating and selecting a leader based on perception of power, and not on capacity or capability. Mukhriz has called for Umno Youth to go “back to basics” and to become a pressure group within Umno, while Khairy has called for Umno Youth to reach out to the mostly non-partisan youth and for an end to right-wing politics. Nobody really understands what Khir Toyo stands for except that he represents the views of a typical grassroots leader — which can be seen by the respectable number of nominations he has received thus far — while Zahid can be termed as just another “joker”, using Dr Mahathir's term of the candidates (apart from Muhyiddin) in the deputy presidency race.
Mukhriz's idea of Umno Youth returning to its heady days is a step backwards for the movement. His intention of turning the wing into a pressure group, to be far to the right, will turn off even more youths at the sight of Umno. In an era where inclusiveness and moderation stands tall, the voice calling for a return to the protective and nationalistic stance is very inward looking and will embolden further hatred for Umno. In short, what Mukhriz aspires for Umno Youth is not something revolutionary, in fact it is a very digressive stance and may turn Umno Youth into a very chauvinistic wing.
Khairy took a very bold step in denouncing right-wing politics, the exact type of politics that Mukhriz is in favour of. Khairy's intention to reach out to the youths who are not within the party structure is an important measure to stifle Pakatan's growing influence among this group. However, Khairy has some credibility issues of his own as he was a right-wing politician himself while Youth vice-chief. Some of his actions — in pushing for the re-introduction of the New Economic Policy, the numerous slip-of-the-tongue episodes that angered the non Malays including BN component parties — did little to boost his flagging credibility.
Umno Youth has a choice of two very similar leaders — western educated, affable and young — with two very different ideas on the path that the movement should take. One veers too far to the right and in turn will hardened the already Malay-centric Youth wing. While the other acknowledges the measures required for the party to regain the support of the youth even though he is fighting credibility issues. One thing is for sure, whoever inherits the throne of the Youth wing, grassroots leaders will flock to him as the scent of power is too alluring to resist.
To many leaders and supporters, the outgoing king is Abdullah, and the new kingmaker is Dr Mahathir. Those who have been kissing Abdullah and even Khairy's hand before this are now turning to Dr Mahathir and Mukhriz to kiss theirs. They better hope they are kissing the right pair of hands come March '09.including BN component parties — did little to boost his flagging credibility.
Umno Youth has a choice of two very similar leaders — western educated, affable and young — with two very different ideas on the path that the movement should take. One veers too far to the right and in turn will hardened the already Malay-centric Youth wing. While the other acknowledges the measures required for the party to regain the support of the youth even though he is fighting credibility issues. One thing is for sure, whoever inherits the throne of the Youth wing, grassroots leaders will flock to him as the scent of power is too alluring to resist.
To many leaders and supporters, the outgoing king is Abdullah, and the new kingmaker is Dr Mahathir. Those who have been kissing Abdullah and even Khairy's hand before this are now turning to Dr Mahathir and Mukhriz to kiss theirs. They better hope they are kissing the right pair of hands come March '09. -- MI
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