Can win-ability save Umno?


By Sheridan Mahavera
September 24, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept twenty-four To their Umno as well as MCA patriarchs, Datuk Mad Aris Mad Yusof as well as Michael Tay have been tiny fish. One is a former representative whilst a other is usually bend chief.

But their tiny significance in a celebration is in inverse to their public profiles. Mad Aris is a four-term, undefeated representative of Chempaka, in Selangor. His final winning jot down was in 2004, where he got 6,055-more votes than a PAS candidate.

Tay, meanwhile, has fashioned a repute for being a "Michael Chong" of Johor MCA. He appears almost every week in newspapers where he highlights cases which a cops, internal councils as well as even "wakil rakyat" can't resolve.

Despite storied service records in their communities, both have as well as could again be upheld over as choosing possibilities of their respective parties. But this could shift if Umno president as well as Barisan Nasional chief Datuk Seri Najib Razak has his way.

Dr Mohd Khir said a subsequent general choosing would see some-more scrutiny upon a personalities of candidates. File pic
Najib wants a BN parties to select possibilities based upon their ability to win in an election. The approach sounds judicious as well as elementary sufficient but in reality hits at a core of how BN parties function.

At slightest for a past 30 years, possibilities have always been chosen between a party's comparison middle-ranking officers. Either a division, emissary or vice-chiefs or a leaders of their women or Youth wings.

The bigger factor

The didactic discourse of "win-ability" goes back to a debate as to whether a claimant or a celebration is a bigger cause in an election.

Does a candidate's glamour as well as open profile win over cit! izens wi th little assistance from his celebration or does a well-oiled machine assistance put into office even a most dull politician?

Numerous examples have backed both sides of a argument, from a 1988 Johor Baru by-election to a 2002 Ketari by-election.

An increasingly educated as well as perceptive voter populace, BN leaders say, have balanced a outcome of both factors.

"It used to be you could field a 'songkok' in a little of our seats as well as you would still win," jokes Datuk Seri Raja Ahmad Zainuddin Raja Omar from Perak Umno, of a prevalence a BN's machine once had. "That's only not possible anymore."

The past 3 years where Pakatan Rakyat has ruled 4 states as well as challenged BN's 50-year prevalence in a federal administration as well as Parliament has additionally since citizens a perspective into different styles of governance.

Sungai Panjang representative Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo believes which since both coalitions, BN as well as PR, have been very layman-centred in their strategies as well as service-oriented in policies, a specifying cause would be their candidates.

"We will see some-more scrutiny in a subsequent choosing upon a personalities of a candidate. Almost 60 per cent of citizens will be youths (under 40), so you should select younger possibilities with leadership potential," says Dr Mohd Khir, a former Selangor mentri besar.

Breaking tradition

How "win-ability" is determined would expected be contentious, says Ramli Mohd Yunos a Kedah Umno multiplication secretary.

"And if a claimant does not get a support of internal Umno leaders, they will 'switch off' their machinery," says Ramli. In most previous elections, this often torpedoed a campaign.

Traditionally, win-ability was closely tied to celebration in front of at a multiplication level. The practice used to be which a BN personality rose up a ranks by se! rvice to a community because, theoretically, a celebration serves a community.

It ho! lds goto ng-royong, helps get welfare assist for a needy, helps in disaster service as well as channels complaints to a internal authorities. In essence, celebration work is training for prospective "wakil rakyat".

So a personality moves up in a celebration in relation to his track jot down of service. And when he gets tall enough, he is chosen as candidate.

As crime spread in Umno, this process of scaling a hierarchy stopped as well as was r! eplaced by patronage. Party elections became awash with money as multiplication bosses were chosen based upon how much they outlayed rsther than than how much they served.

Raja Ahmad Zainuddin cautions opposite side stepping multiplication interests. Picture by Choo Choy May
Eventually, those leaders became possibilities by trait of their attribute to a state or inhabitant leader.

And elections were won or lost depending upon whether a sure multiplication personality got a candidacy he wanted.

"Win-ability" is supposed to cut by this by insisting which multiplication in front of is not a pre-requisite to removing fielded as a candidate.

An example, says Ramli of Kedah Umno, is a Klang Valley-based veteran who is known nationally but who comes back to his kampung to be a candidate.

But Raja Ahmad Zainuddin of Perak cautions opposite side stepping multiplication interests. A party's machinery, he says, makes a difference in conditions of removing a candidate's name out to all a citizens in his constituency.

"Especially, fence sitters, a party's machine can lean them a single way or a other," says Raja Ahmad Zainuddin, who is additionally Kubu Gajah assemblyman.

He additionally argues which if possibilities do not come from a party's internal leadership as well as do not work themselves up a ranks, there will be no loyalty.

"Wakil rakyat can afterwards only shift parties after winning ! since th ey do not have a tie to a party." Win-able possibilities afterwards will still have to be paired with a celebration which will drive their campaigns.

If Najib succeeds in bypassing Umno's warlords to get possibilities who have been calculated to interest to today's some-more educated voter, he could only lapse a shine to a celebration whose image has been stained by fervour as well as self-interest.

After all, it is a real Malaysian citizens who will establish a future of BN as well as Umno, as well as not a multiplication chief as well as his cronies.

Malaysians Must Know a TRUTH

Courtesy of Bonology.com Politically Incorrect Buzz & Buzz

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