As usual Umno is the last to see the writing on the wall. But this is also the third nail on the party’s coffin, as I had written earlier. One more nail and Umno will be as good as dead, for a while at least.

Six months before the last general election, I wrote that I would vote for the opposition because of the arrogance of Umno. Nobody seems to have heard me yet. Why would a former government officer with 30 years of service under his belt be so upset with the Umno government?

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This time last week I wrote that I would still vote for the opposition, but not without first stating my own conditions; which I clearly stated in my previous column warning against PAS’ insistence in arguing for an Islamic state at the federal level, when the constitution does not allow an ontological basis in doing so.

I, however, have fewer problems with the same argument at the state level. This would actually be theoretically consistent with the federal constitution and the role of syariah as personal and family law but only operational at the state level; including by way of enforcement.

In fact in my last column, I had begun my argument for a new kind of federalism needed in Malaysia to really and truly reflect the federation that we are supposed to be.

This time I think at least some people heard, as Najib Abdul Razak was aggressively dishing out goodies to all and sundry. Chinese schools are finally going to get their federal allocations directly through their school boards instead of through Umno intermediaries.

Even Umno class F contractors are getting their projects on the ground vide transparent and open balloting, although that looked like chance and gambling to me. Nevertheless, I only hope that some of these ‘wins’ included ‘PAS contractors and they do not consider such allocations haram .

But probably not, knowing that operative greed is good culture within Umno and the financial slowdown in the world. I hear that even the Indian Muslims received some hand-outs, but still, all this was too little too late.

The writing on the wall is that people are now against Umno and her arrogance. I hope the Umno General Assembly in March will read this writing on the wall. I hope some Umno delegates will read my column and at least speak for the concerns of what some call the ‘Malaysian first agenda’.

Time for a new agenda

Currently it is still the operative Umno ‘Malay first agenda’, but surely we cannot it have both ways! Therefore, I propose to Umno that at the next General Assembly, the key issue is not who gets elected to the next echelon of leadership, but rather what does Umno want to do for the country to achieve the Bangsa Malaysia agenda.

Pakatan Rakyat calls it Ketuanan Rakyat . Yes, that is the ‘Malaysian first agenda’ and most Malaysians do not want Umno’s ‘Malay first agenda’ anymore!

I believe this will also be the core set of issues surrounding the Sarawak elections, which if Umno does not take good care, may be the last and fourth nail on the coffin for the party.

Where and how did I see the Ketuanan Melayu Baru agenda at the last by-election? First, if one were to notice, trying to separate the trees from the woods, in the case of BN, all major statements of concessions and hand-outs were made only by Umno ministers.

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All the other component party leaders, even if the heads came, could only play the role of second fiddle. So, the by-election became an Umno versus the rest of the world battle.

Inside BN, they had to appease MCA and Gerakan to seek out the so-called Chinese voters, but outside they had to fight tooth and nail against the full weight of all Pakatan leaders, who turned up in full and combined force for their Ketuanan Rakyat agenda.

The most evident of these is the post-election MCA president’s view that more Chinese voted for BN this time than the last time. Is the MCA president only concerned about Chinese votes? Are the rest not Malaysians?

Are we not then Malaysians first? This is the first problem I have with BN and Umno. In organisation theory we say, organisations must synergise for better performance and excellence. One cannot only sub-optimise all the time.

But this seems to be the current and only model for the BN. Pakatan, on the other hand, proved that they could synergise for improved performance, even though there is a strong difference of opinion on PAS’ Islamic state agenda.

While Karpal Singh argued as the DAP’s conscience, that did not stop PAS from arguing for their own agenda and their conscience. But, on the more important matter of their federal organisational priority, they did come together for the good of all Malaysians.

They remained, in thinking and actions, Malaysians first. As a result, they won.

Let me, therefore, conclude this column by making my federalist point even clearer. Are we a federation or not? If we are, then the operative worldview of law and order must be that of the federal constitution.

Limited world view not an option

There is no room for privately held religious world views and partisan agendas driving our public political actions. Sure, PAS holds to an Islamic worldview, but so what?

But, if they say that they are going to achieve the world view, with so-called jihad , if necessary, then they will be outlawed. But as they have clearly said that their agenda is to argue and seek the Islamic world view of belief and practice as the guiding value for good governance, I am not sure how many non-Muslims would really still object.

The problem currently is that either the so-called Islamic world view or the Masyrakat Madani world view, which Pak Lah calls \”progressive Islam\” or Islam Hadhari, is only a limited world view.

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Therefore, unless the Muslims in Malaysia can agree on a commonly defined and interpreted Islamic world view, conducted within a framework of some mesyuarah (consensus), the battle for the ideals remains a contentious one, defined by different political ideas and ideals of the parties and their leaders.

For the other parties that transcend the narrow race-based way of doing things, the challenge is to transcend the particulars in the debate and seek the consensus on the big federal priority issues. Pakatan seems to be learning to do this, partly because they do not have a common symbol yet, and are therefore only as strong as their weakest link.

Therefore, and based on the decentralised model of leadership, Pakatan members speak with their own convictions and voice but they also know how to agree to disagree in agreeable ways.

The party that learns to synergise the transformation of the multi-cultural groups in Malaysia will form the next government, regardless of what they call themselves. Malaysia is now a maturing democracy and therefore cannot treat its citizenry like illiterate, under-educated once-in-five- years voting citizens.

May God continue to bless the leadership in Malaysia to understand and know their priorities and seek such truths!