Many expected that Umno would do badly in the state elections, and that was actually a no brainer.

Now, there are talks surfacing about the Umno leadership, especially that of Zahid Hamidi as the scapegoat of all scapegoats. What a simplistic thing to say!

Then there is one supreme council member saying that Umno must review its ties with DAP in order to win over the Malays. Wah…itu macam saja kah?

So, if I were to conclude, the problem of Umno seems to be Zahid Hamidi and DAP. I will bet anything under the sun if we eliminate both Zahid Hamidi and the DAP, Umno would probably perform as bad or even worse, not better at all.

I am not here to support Zahid, nor am I here to support the DAP but to show that Umno has no idea of its own 40-year history of faults when Tun M began his reign

Why did Umno lose in Kelantan? During the days of Reformasi, when PAS carried the banner of injustice to Anwar Ibrahim, I heard ceramah after ceramah on how Umno made Kelantan an “anak tiri.”

In one ceramah Nik Aziz lamented that the grant from the federal offers would always come in late and development budget for infrastructure was always difficult to get from Tun M, the president of Umno then.

I also saw how Umno ridiculed PAS by saying bad things about the party’s ideas on Islam and scaring non-Malays from that party.

Can such efforts be forgotten by voters now in their seventies and who advise their children? As the saying goes, what goes around comes around.

Next, let’s look at how Umno of the recent past treated the DAP.

The narrative of DAP as a hantu Melayu and a pontianak to Islam has always been the pillar that binds ignorant Malay voters, whether they are from the educated side or non-educated ones.

DAP is seen to be threatening everything Melayu and everything Islam.

I know many Umno leaders who were appointed to top positions in the party and in the government just because they are the loudest in being kurang ajar to DAP.

Malay people love it when the Umno clowns shout and jeer at non-Malays because most Malays are “polite” and do not like to display their disdain for others in public.

But Malays support people like Tajuddin Abdul Rahman, and now Sanusi of Kedah.

When Isham Jalil says that Umno needs to review its relationship with DAP, I wanted to both laugh and throw up at the same time.

The analogy of the relationship was so funny and disgusting that prompted my reaction.

Let’s say you moved into a new neighborhood where your next-door neighbor keeps an immaculate and clean house and garden. You, however, keep a dirty house.

So, when visitors come to your house, they cannot help but comment on the cleanliness of your neighbor’s house compared to yours. Your reaction? Oh, I must move away from this neighbor and live with neighbors that keep as dirty a house as I do and then I won’t be noticed at all.

Or, you curse the neighbor for making you look bad.

Isham Jalil’s reaction is exactly this. Blame someone else. It is easier to not change oneself and make others the bogeyman.

Why did Umno lose? Because of Ahmad Zahid and DAP? It’s easier to not change oneself and make others the bogeyman.

Next, Umno members and voters love corrupt leaders. There is no denying that.

Look at Najib’s followers. Now look at Sanusi’s. One leader is proven to be corrupt while another is perhaps going to face the same charges.

Do the Malays care that the people’s money is used to enrich Malay politicians and Malay civil servants? No, the Malays love it. Why?

Well, rich Malays show that they are as successful as rich Chinese, right? It does not matter where the Malays got the money as long as they can flash their luxury cars, castle-like houses and jewel-bedecked wives. That is success in the Malay dictionary.

So, hundreds of Birkin bags with a price tag of a hundred thousand ringgit is a sign of success.

Next, rich Malays can give money to poor Malays, donate to mosques, give money to tahfizs and help many thousands perform the Hajj or Umrah.

Malays have no idea about the taxes and how the collected money belongs to all citizens of all races. Why? Most of the Malays do not pay taxes!

I know warung owners who can afford to go for Umrah every year and yet do not pay taxes or even help the poor of their own community.

Finally, Umno groomed 20 universities to produce Malays with mediocre qualifications so that they can just makan gaji or the worst of them become ministers and prime ministers.

Any intelligent Malay will be criticized as being too progressive, too moderate, too compromising with others and too critical to accept orders blindly.

The best Malays are those who don’t read and don’t ask questions of a packaged history of Malays against the others, follow ustaz in religion without asking serious questions about compassion for all humans, works for the government, works for GLCs, and the rest become businessmen to get projects from the government from inflated costs and return the 10% back to the party as political donation.

For the academics, Umno appointed the university leadership that does not understand how knowledge can change society, the environment and a prosperous economic future.

The role of the leadership is to make KPIs that have no relevance to change unless they benefit one race that supports Umno.

So, why did Umno lose? Because of Zahid and DAP? Please don’t think Malaysians are stupid!

I have lived 40 years of watching Umno thrive, break, and now almost dead. Umno needs a new crop of Malays in order to change.

I do not mind the election loss if Umno can actually review its moral and spiritual foundation.

Umno needs to perhaps work very closely with Amanah and MUDA to find a new frame of nation consciousness.

Leave PKR and DAP on one side. Umno should ask G25 and G70 Melayu professors on how they should rethink their young Pemuda to rebuild.

Let ABIM and IKRAM work with Anwar for their Madani Islam, while Umno works with others for a new Malay that carries the spirit of Onn Jaafar, Tun Dr. Ismail, Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Abdul Razak.

Let Umno forge a new identity for itself and its new best buddies.

I will be the first to support Umno if it can discard its past Malay base. Umno must look at a Malaysian base from Semenanjung, Sabah and Sarawak.

Leave the Hadi Malays, Sanusi Malays to themselves. There is no place in the borderless world for a tempurung Melayu but the sky is the limit for the Malays who view themselves as part of a global humanity. This is also the new Malay base for Umno.

Can Umno bring this change…please?

(Prof Dr. Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor of Architecture at a local university and his writing reflects his own personal opinion entirely.)