By Mariam Mokhtar

Umno-Baru celebrated its 75th anniversary on 11 May. Its president Zahid Hamidi currently faces a slew of charges in court from CBT to money laundering.

He was forced to put a brave face on what would normally have been an auspicious celebration, but the whole nation will reflect on Umno-Baru's performance.

Zahid was right to claim that Umno-Baru was the biggest party in Malaysia and enjoyed a long track record of governing the country for 63 years.

However, many of us will disagree with his boast that Umno-Baru was a party which Malaysians trusted.

Really? Today, Umno-Baru is a party divided. From a party that claimed to defend the Malays, there is internal squabbling, openly hostile displays of power grabbing because its leaders are aware that with power comes the ability to make millions of ringgits on the side.

Instead of a party that once helped champion the rights of Malaysians, it is viewed as a party of leaders who feather their nests, reward their family members and cronies, and abuse their powers. In other words, the leaders only look after their own interests.

Umno-Baru was spawned from Umno during Malaysia's worst constitutional crisis of 1988, in a series of events created by its former president Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Today, Malaysians would be hard pressed to imagine that the party Bersatu, or the coalition Perikatan Nasional (PN), are different from Umno-Baru.

They are not! Both are clones of Umno-Baru and the former coalition of Barisan National (BN). Several leaders of Bersatu are former members of Umno-Baru. They may have a different uniform and logo, but they still exhibit the traits of Umno-Baru.

What can Umno-Baru claim to have achieved after 75 years? If not for the Sheraton power grab, the anniversary would have been celebrated with much pomp and ceremony.

Today, Malaysia is almost bankrupt and the party has been stripped of its former glory.

This is perhaps best for the nation, as its leaders, party members and supporters have become too arrogant. The party has been knocked off its perch and emasculated.

Whom are Zahid and other Umno-Baru leaders trying to fool when they label Umno-Baru as "trusted"?

In other countries, people who steal and commit terrible financial crimes are called thieves. We honor such people by making them prime ministers.

The party has a string of leaders who have been charged with corruption, CBT and money laundering. They are awaiting trial or have been sentenced.

The convicted criminal Najb Abdul Razak, Abdul Azeez Abdul Raheem and Adnan Mansor are some of the big names associated with sleaze. They have brought shame on the nation and in particular the Malays whom the party seeks to defend.

The nation is today divided, just as the party is splintered.

In the run-up to Merdeka, Malays, Chinese and Indians rose as one to gain independence from the British. Today, Malaysians claim that they have a new colonizer.

Intolerance and religious extremism are on the rise. People of other religions are often insulted by the majority race and religion, but no court dares to charge the people who tried to inflame violence.

Malays have a proud history and tradition of culture, dress and language, but in today's Malaysia, many emulate the people of Saudi Arabia. Even this anomaly has been criticized by the Sultan of Johor when he said Malays have no need to be Arabicized.

The private lives of Malaysians, in particular the Malays, are minutely monitored by the moral police in what appears to be an influence of the Wahhabi culture of Saudi Arabia.

We are a divided nation with non-Malays of Indian and Chinese descent insulted with labels of "pendatang" (immigrants) even though many are 9th or 10th generation Malaysians.

Many of the Umno-Baru leaders are themselves of non-Malay stock. They are Bugis, Javanese or Keralan.

The gap between the rich and the poor has widened. Many claim that affirmative action policies were successful in lifting some Malays out of poverty, but the policies were then abused by elite Malays. The poor have become poorer and the rich are richer.

After they enter politics, Umno-Baru leaders reward their friends, family members and cronies with contracts worth millions of ringgits.

Others claim that the social ills of the Malay community have increased, but the leaders have failed to address the problems of child marriages, incest, single mothers, abandoned babies, drug abuse, Mat Rempits and unemployed Malay youth.

As recent revelations have shown that Umno-Baru leaders have had their fingers caught in the till. The pilgrimage fund, the retirement fund for the Armed Forces, Mara, Felda and MAS are some of the institutions which Umno-Baru political appointees have pilfered and ruined.

Under Umno-Baru's watch, drug and human trafficking cartels and large scale corruption have plagued the police, government and ministerial departments.

In other words, if Umno-Baru leaders had been more responsible instead of abusing their powers, Malaysia could have taken a different path instead of being a nation which foreign investors openly avoid.

After 75 years of Umno-Baru, Malaysia's good name has been tarnished by its leaders. We are infamous as a kleptocratic nation led by thieves and criminals.

Only the will of the people can drag us out of this morass.

Source:

1. YouTube: Ucapan khas presiden Umno sempena hari ulang tahun Umno yang ke-75

2. The Star: Ex-Tabung Haji chairman Abdul Azeez fails in bid to quash 13 charges for corruption, money laundering

3. Malay Mail: Stop aping Arabs, Johor Sultan tells Malays

4. Sarawak Report: 10b in bonds looted from EPF to raise $4b for Najib

(Mariam Mokhtar is a Freelance Writer.)