What else does Umno want?

KUALA LUMPUR 25 Aug – MIC, the largest Indian based political party in the country, earlier this week broke ground for the construction of an ambitious headquarters worth RM250 million, which will house a convention hall, hotel, condominium and the party headquarters among others.

The new “twin towers” MIC headquarters is expected to be completed by 2025 and judging from impressive architect drawings the structure will be a new landmark in the federal capital.

While this is good news for the party, certain quarters have taken it upon themselves to try find fault with the party for reasons only known to them.

The groundbreaking ceremony was criticized by some factors for starting the event with prayers by a Hindu priest, a Muslim doa and a Christian prayer.

Some Islamic religious quarters raised the issue saying that the “doa” should not have been recited at the event as it was mostly attended by non-Muslims to an extent that the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Council felt that the incident warranted a probe.

Many know that while MIC is made up of Indians, they are off different faiths including Muslims, Hindus, Christians and even Sikhs. In fact, the party consists of hordes of Indian Muslims who are regarded as more Muslim than the Malays themselves.

The party retorted to these religious bigots stating its reason for having prayers of various faiths before the party’s historic groundbreaking ceremony. This somewhat doused the religious fire before it turned into an inferno.

It must be noted that the groundbreaking ceremony was also attended by the Barisan Nasional (BN) chief and Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who in his speech wanted the coalition to retain its past strength, stay united and work towards winning the hearts and minds of the Malaysian voters.

MIC is a component party of the BN, which had seen its support decline drastically since the 2018 General Elections. At the 15^th GE late last year, the BN, which was once the ruling government, won a mere 30 seats out of the 222 parliamentary constituencies up for grabs.

Just two days after Ahmad Zahid’s speech at the groundbreaking ceremony Umno information chief Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said proposed that Umno uses its own logo at the next general election and discard the BN. This means that the party wanted to go alone at the next GE ditching MCA and MIC, who are BN partners in the Peninsula Malaysia.

This was awkward as just 48-hours earlier Ahmad Zahid, who is Umno president, propounded on the importance for the BN components to remain united and forge a close rapport with voters.

Azalina drew flack for the statement, which was signed off as Umno information chief, and yesterday she made a U-turn saying that her views were personal opinion and that it was not the party’s official stand.

This forces one to draw a conclusion that Umno is not cohesive and there are leaders in the party who want to take a different direction by moving away from the wishes of Ahmad Zahid.

When you are an information chief of a political party your personal opinion should be kept to your party circles and not through a press statement, and that too signed off as information head.

If Azalina had wanted to propose an idea, then she should have done it through party channels like the Umno supreme council and not through a media statement.

Azalina made a costly blunder at a time when voters’ support to Umno was at its lowest in its history. For Umno this is the time you seek allies and not make enemies.

Maybe, she thought she was helping the president by getting rid of MCA and MIC from the BN equation. To her dismay she realized that she made a huge mistake and hence the “personal opinion statement” yesterday.

From the surface it looks like there are factions in Umno who want the party to go solo at the next GE without the support from MCA or MIC.

But Umno must realise that the hard time BN was facing now was because of it and its leadership and not because of MCA or MIC.

If Umno was to go alone at the next polls, one can safely predict that the party will be wiped of the country’s political landscape judging from the voters’ support for the party at the recently concluded six state elections.

There also seems to be an “underground” movement to pit Ahmad Zahid with other BN components by some Umno leaders.

This would further weaken Ahmad Zahid and Umno generally, and it is very likely that Umno would come to a standstill should it venture into the political landscape individually as a political party. — Xklusif