Is UMNO-online the first casualty in the prelude to a  renewed power tussle  in UMNO sparked off by Sunday’s  “Takkan Melayu Hilang Di Dunia” Gathering?

(Petaling Jaya, Thursday): I had said that the  Malay Action Front’s (MAF) gathering on Sunday themed   “Takkan Melayu Hilang Di Dunia” was  a misnomer as it was actually about  “Takkan UMNO Hilang Di Dunia” and that it was the strongest and most open challenge to Mahathir’s UMNO  leadership  from inside UMNO since the Team A-Team B split and the Razaleigh revolt in 1987. I had excluded the even stronger Anwar Ibrahim challenge to Mahathir as this was never allowed to take place within UMNO.

Sunday’s gathering seemed to mark a prelude to a renewed power tussle in UMNO and many have asked whether the UMNO website, UMNO-online, is the first casualty as many have complained that they could not access it since last evening after two blistering attacks on the organisers and speakers at the gathering.

After an earlier piece on UMNO-online entitled “Perhimpunan Barisan Bertindak Melayu: Keluar Dari Landasan Agenda Melayu”  lambasting the MAF gathering for not wanting to find ways to protect Malay interests but merely  to project
the speakers as Malay champions and that apart from  Tan Sri Awang Had Salleh dan Tun Ghafar Baba, all the other speakers could as well be “representatives” of PAS and KeADILAN youth leaders (“ wakil Mahfuz dan Ezam”), it carried another blistering attack on the gathering yesterday.

Entitled “Badan Bertindak Melayu (BBM) Agendanya Mengelirukan”, the piece alleged that Sunday’s gathering could have been organised by Parti Semangat Melayu 46 twelve  years ago when it was pitted against Mahathir and UMNO.
 
It said:
 

“Apakah mereka ini sekali lagi menjadi kelompok 'elit' yang turut sama berjuang dan bertujuan untuk menumbangkan Dato' Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamed melalui jalan lain?
 
“Mengapa mereka menggunakan platform ini, nama keramat Melayu ini dan perhimpunan ini sebagai satu wadah menzahirkan dendam mereka kepada YAB Perdana Menteri? Belum terpadam rupanya dendam mereka.
 
“Percaya atau tidak, saya terasa berada dalam majlis yang dianjurkan oleh Parti Melayu Semangat 46, 12 tahun yang lalu. Tatkala Dato' Harun diusung ke atas pentas bersama kereta roda dan diiringi oleh seorang jururawat yang manis, ia segera mengingatkan saya peristiwa Almarhum Tunku Abdul Rahman diberikan sambutan yang serupa.
 
“Bezanya, kedatangan Dato' Harun disambut dengan teriakan 'Hidup Melayu !!!'.

“Nampak sesuatu yang tidak kena dengan BBM ini. Mungkin niat mereka baik. Mungkin mereka berniat untuk memperbetulkan sesuatu dan mengkritik kerajaan dalam menjalankan prinsip demokrasi yang diamalkan.
 
“Mereka turut peka dan gelisah terhadap perpecahan yang berlaku dewasa ini. Malangnya, isu dan pandangan setengah mereka tidak ada bezanya dengan apa yang disampaikan oleh pihak pembangkang.
 
“Bagi mereka, perpecahan yang berlaku ini hanya kerana kelemahan dan kredibiliti pemimpin yang mereka pertikaikan.
 
“Mereka mempertikaikan susunan kabinet, dasar penswastaan dan projek KLCC, Putrajaya dan sebagainya. Maksudnya, perpecahan ini adalah berpunca segalanya dari kelemahan kerajaan dan pemimpin tertinggi (cara mereka pukul anak menyindir menantu) dalam menjaga hak orang Melayu.
 
“Mereka menyediakan peluru buat PAS dan KeADILan untuk menghina pemimpin Melayu yang lain. Tidak seorang pun yang mengkritik PAS mahupun KeADILan sedangkan kedua parti ini banyak menggugat perpaduan dan pembangunan Melayu.
 
“Tidak seorang pun menyalahkan fitnah dan adu domba yang disusun secara bersistem untuk menjahanamkan kredibiliti pemimpin kerajaan.
 
“Tidak seorangpun, yang menyalahkan tohmahan dan penipuan yang bertali arus disusun oleh PAS dan KeADILan termasuk yang dilakukan oleh manusia yang mengaku menjadi ulama dalam PAS.
 
“Malah, mereka sebenarnya menjadikan forum ini sebagai medan untuk mengutuk dan mengkritik kerajaan dan YAB Perdana Menteri. Mereka, sama seperti PAS atau Keadilan yang turut menghentam membabi buta.”

Calls have started to be heard for disciplinary actions to be taken in UMNO against the organisers and speakers at the Sunday gathering, to the extent that one of the speakers, educationist Tan Sri Awang Had Salleh had to suffer the naivete of trying to  distance himself claiming that the organisers lacked credibility and that he felt cheated as the gathering had deviated from its original theme of Malay unity.

While  the attempt by the gathering organisers to use insensitive, inflammatory and  provocative posters and banners for the gathering calling using a design  suggestive of an unsheathed  keris in a  sea of blood - and Malaysians are still waiting for the police and the attorney-general’s chambers to prosecute the  organisers for sedition - and the playing of the  racial card at the gathering by blaming other races for UMNO’s decline as invoking the May 13 riots of 1969 and the call on the government to reject totally the 83 Suqiu election appeals must be condemned in no uncertain terms, several pertinent and valid points were made by various speakers, such as:
 

• “We want to remind the leaders that the Malays would not desert UMNO without reason. UMNO leaders should do some soul-searching as to why Malays had rejected the party in the 1999 elections. If a house is in a poor state, then we should not demolish it.  If it is the pillar what is faulty, then we can replace that part.” - Datuk Zakaria Said, former Kuala Kedah MP.
• “Dr Mahathir has done a lot for the country, but it is now time for him to listen to the grassroots. The government has to explain issues to the grassroots before it makes a decision…The grassroots' opinion is also that the Cabinet must be cleaned up. The present Cabinet does not enjoy credibility among the Malays.” - Datuk Mazlan Harun, son of former Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Harun Idris
• “Forty-three years after independence, but where are our rights? If the government can  spend millions and billions of ringgit to build Putrajaya, the MSC and all these grand buildings, surely it can also create development which can benefit the Malays. But there  are still poor Malay farmers and fishermen. Instead, the government is more concerned with helping selected companies and people - YTL, MRCB, Berjaya, Renong, DRB (major  Malaysian corporations).” - Tajuddin Rahman, veteran Umno leader.
• “The problem with Umno today is that a lot of people try to curry favour. A rally like this is the right venue to express our views because those who speak at Umno general assemblies are more concerned with pleasing the leadership than telling the hard truth.” - Datuk Ibrahim Ali, a former deputy minister.

The question is whether these speakers had committed gross breach of party discipline in UMNO in making these speeches and would have to recant to repent for their wrongs or  be disciplined, or whether these speakers were speaking from the bottom of their hearts and are prepared to spark off a movement for change in UMNO involving the removal of Mahathir as UMNO President and Prime Minister.

The greatest problem faced by these speakers  is that they  lack political credibility to lead any movement for change in UMNO as a result of their own political past - unless there is someone with credibility  who is prepared to come forward as a rallying point in UMNO to fly the banner for UMNO reform and Mahathir’s removal.   Is there such a person in UMNO?

 (8/2/2001)