Umno will need a more pragmatic set of reform solutions. Whoever that will helm the party must come up with a new political philosophy that will convince not only the Malays, but all Malaysians as well.

The four-day Umno general assembly beginning this Wednesday will focus on self reflection after the party’s humiliating defeat in the 15th general assembly, as the party struggles to find a new formula to gain back the lost confidence and how to win the next elections.

The assembly will also decide whether party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi should be held responsible for the electoral defeat.

On the opening day, deputy president Mohamad Hasan said PN’s online and social media warfare paid off in last year’s general election, as it managed to arouse a negative sentiment among the voters towards Umno. As a result, many young voters and social media users were affected by PN’s tactics, thinking that Umno was no longer able to lead the Malays, and thus voted for PN instead.

On the eve of the general assembly, Ahmad Zahid told RTM in an exclusive interview that the party’s lackluster performance in the election could be blamed on “money politics” or vote-buying by PN, adding that such unhealthy practice is expected to continue in the six state elections to be held during the first half of the year, or even the next general election.

As such, he asserted that such a practice must be eradicated, although he fell short of offering a solution.

Meanwhile, his deputy Tok Mat urged the party members to come together to rebuild the Malays’ confidence in Umno, and the upcoming state elections will be very crucial for the party’s revival.

In view of this, Umno has set up a committee to be headed by the party’s youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki to explore the best solution to tackle this issue.

Tok Mat also defended the party leadership’s decision to work with PH to form the unity government. He said BN, with only 30 seats won in GE15, had to join the unity government so that Umno could take the country out of the post-election crisis to ensure the quality of life for Malaysians will not be compromised by continued political turmoil.

In addition, he said Umno also wants to defend Malaysia’s diversity and take the country back to the path of moderation, besides fighting for the rights of the Malays.

After the party was abandoned by Malaysian voters in GE14, Umno at one point opted to work with PAS in a Muafakat Nasional alliance in hope of bringing itself back on its feet and continuing its struggle to fight for the rights of the Malays.

The party later collaborated with Bersatu to topple the PH government and then recaptured the PM post from the hands of Bersatu.

With the two parties now going separate ways, Umno scored landslide victories in the two state elections in Johor and Melaka. Just as everyone thought that PN had come to a bottleneck, it was out of everyone’s expectation that PN jostled out Umno strongly in the 15th general election.

PN (PAS to be exact) has indeed outdone Umno in election strategy for successfully lashing an enormous “green wave” across the country.

According to a report by Center for Chinese Studies Malaysia (Huayan), the Malay voters were weighing which among the Malay parties could bring them more practical benefits when casting their ballots.

When Muhyiddin was the prime minister, the government offered generous assistance handouts to the people at the height of the  coronavirus pandemic, and this prompted many Malay voters who had benefited directly from the government’s assistance packages to vote for PN.

The so-called “Malay class tsunami” has evolved from the impressions of widening wealth gap and rampant corruption Umno has imparted on the Malay people. Having said that, the Umno leadership has failed to display a strong resolve to change and has no substantial solutions for reform, not to mention the involvement of the party’s president in a large number of court cases on corruption and abuse of power.

This time, the party says it will reflect on its weaknesses that have caused the party to flop badly in the election, but it appears that it is still playing the same old tune over and again, especially on money politics, without realizing that the party has started it all!

Since Mahathir’s time in the 1990s, Umno has over the decades kept talking about eradicating money politics, and the same is still being talked about today.

The thing is, the same old problem still plagues Umno today despite changes in its leaders and so many general elections. The party seems to have not drawn a lesson from the past failures, and this explains why it has since gone steadily downhill.

The Umno party election which must be held latest by this May will be a very crucial war for Ahmad Zahid and Tok Mat, and is also critical to the stability of Anwar Ibrahim’s unity government.

Desperate to keep their posts, Ahmad Zahid and Tok Mat are more inclined not to open these two top party posts for contest although they cannot unreservedly oppose to it. So they say they will let the general assembly decide.

So far already 140 Umno divisional chiefs have agreed to keep the top two party posts uncontested on the excuse of preserving the party’s internal stability as it gears up for the upcoming state elections.

Khairy Jamaluddin, who during the election campaign claimed that he would run for the presidency again, apparently begs to differ.

Ahmad Zahid and Tok Mat were two key persons pushing for the establishment of the unity government and both are currently holding key positions in the new cabinet, with Ahmad Zahid being the deputy PM cum rural development minister. This will naturally lower his risk of being unseated while using the general assembly to further consolidate his hold to power.

Nevertheless, Ahmad Zahid will need to come up with more convincing arguments to allay the fears and skepticism of party members for his support of Anwar’s unity government. He will need to explain to the grassroots that the decision was made on His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s proposal, and also for Umno’s survival.

It was under Ahmad Zahid’s leadership that Umno adopted the “No PH, No DAP” resolution, but it was none other he himself who overthrew this very decision.

Although he and his deputy have kept defending the decision of collaborating with DAP, it is up to the grassroots whether or not to accept their side of the story.

To deliver itself out of the current doldrums, Umno will need a more pragmatic set of reform solutions. Whoever that will helm the party must come up with a new political philosophy that will convince not only the Malays, but all Malaysians as well.

It has been proven in past elections that empty talks and the leaders’ selfishness will not win back the hearts of the voters, who are indeed getting smarter nowadays and will not get easily led by the nose as in the past.

It’s now time for Umno to wake up to such reality!