The Sun
By Zainon Ahmad
KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 18, 2009) : Datuk Seri Najib Razak was, finally, fully endorsed as the Umno president.
If ever there was any lingering doubt or dispute among party members as to who is the supremo of Umno, last week’s 60th general assembly put paid to it.
He was, of course, elected at the last assembly six months ago and was handed the reins of the party at the end of it but many had held their breath until he was sworn in as the sixth prime minister in April before acknowledging him.
Even then the reform measures he implemented, including his liberalising of certain sectors of the national economy after decades of the New Economic Policy and even his 1Malaysia concept, caused disapproving noises to rumble within the ranks and file of the party.
But he worked relentlessly to explain his policies and capitalised on the Kampung Janda Baik retreat or workcamp for divisional and other leaders to strengthen the party esprit de corps among them last month to rationalise his policies to them.
And the just-concluded general assembly crowned his efforts.
Najib realised after the setback the BN suffered at last year’s March 8 general election a major overhaul of the party was needed and new policy directions were required to arrest further erosion of support and to win back those voters who had lost faith in the party.
The effort should have started immediately after March 8 like what Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad did immediately after the little setback Umno suffered in the 1999 polls. He worked hard, announced he was retiring and handed power to "Mr Nice Guy" Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who led the BN to its biggest victory ever in 2004.
When Najib finally held the rein of power in his hands a year had already gone by after the March 8 "tsunami".
Nevertheless he set to work immediately and announced to the nation his reform agenda to make Malaysia "whole" again.
But, at the same time, he realised that even as he sought to win back the support of the other Malaysians with his 1Malaysia concept he must have his own party, the source of his strength as leader of the BN, solidly united behind him, and as quickly as possible.
And it was one reason why the 60th general assembly was held last week, just six month after the last one. Najib himself during his speeches at the assembly reminded the delegates many times that there is so much to do and that "time is not with us".
Thus, in his two-hour long opening speech, he dwelt at length on his reform agenda for the party, the ruling coalition and the government.
If that speech was not convincing enough, his final speech at the end of the assembly swung it for him.
In that final speech to the delegates, among whom was Abdullah, he employed all his oratory and public speaking skills, sometimes bonhomie and affable, sometimes pleading, at other times serious and foreboding, sometimes funny and sometimes stooping to embrace the earthy way many delegates love to express themselves to tell them "we must change".
He bowled them over with his insistence that "we must change" when he referred to the constitutional amendments on the abolishment of the quota system saying that he wants no safeguard for his position.
Why should he fear the members as after all he was party president because they wanted him to lead them.
He said if he failed them they certainly have the right to remove him, and they should. After he said "I leave it to members to decide on my position," the delegates went wild and shouts of Hidup Najib! were heard.
At certain times, he stirred their emotions like a street demagogue, like when he asked them at the end of his rounding-up speech whether they wanted to change, and their reply was a thunderous Ya.
Do you want to work hard now? Ya. Do you want to be close to the rakyat? Ya. Do you want to make the party strong? Ya. Do you want to serve the rakyat? Ya.
Some Umno members who came as observers were cynical about the ya to this and ya to that of the delegates.
They said hopefully their commitment is real this time. In the past their commitment lasts until they have returned to their hotel rooms and folded away their "Umno uniforms" into their suitcases.
There were times when Najib was like a lawyer in court making his submission before members of a jury, gesticulating this way and that, pointing this way and that, and turning this way and that, and sometimes showing his side profiles and sometimes facing them.
After such a stellar performance how else could the jury rule, except in his favour. But as he himself admitted it, the BN big win in Bagan Pinang was a significant help.
"Imagine if we were to lose?" he quipped.
Thus, there was no end to the praises heaped on Tan Sri Isa Samad, the man who was disciplined by Umno for involvement in money politics but chosen as the candidate for Bagan Pinang. Najib explained to the delegates why Isa was chosen.
Isa was a local boy, popular Umno leader of Teluk Kemang, where Bagan Pinang is, and popular with the Malays and non-Malays. Even after he was punished he remained a loyal Umno member. So why should Isa be punished a second time?
And now for Najib, having emerged as the undisputed leader of Umno, and winning the right to tell other parties of the BN to put their houses in order, comes the hard part: Convincing the whole country that the new BN way is the way to go.
And the just-concluded general assembly crowned his efforts.
Najib realised after the setback the BN suffered at last year’s March 8 general election a major overhaul of the party was needed and new policy directions were required to arrest further erosion of support and to win back those voters who had lost faith in the party.
The effort should have started immediately after March 8 like what Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad did immediately after the little setback Umno suffered in the 1999 polls. He worked hard, announced he was retiring and handed power to "Mr Nice Guy" Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who led the BN to its biggest victory ever in 2004.
When Najib finally held the rein of power in his hands a year had already gone by after the March 8 "tsunami".
Nevertheless he set to work immediately and announced to the nation his reform agenda to make Malaysia "whole" again.
But, at the same time, he realised that even as he sought to win back the support of the other Malaysians with his 1Malaysia concept he must have his own party, the source of his strength as leader of the BN, solidly united behind him, and as quickly as possible.
And it was one reason why the 60th general assembly was held last week, just six month after the last one. Najib himself during his speeches at the assembly reminded the delegates many times that there is so much to do and that "time is not with us".
Thus, in his two-hour long opening speech, he dwelt at length on his reform agenda for the party, the ruling coalition and the government.
If that speech was not convincing enough, his final speech at the end of the assembly swung it for him.
In that final speech to the delegates, among whom was Abdullah, he employed all his oratory and public speaking skills, sometimes bonhomie and affable, sometimes pleading, at other times serious and foreboding, sometimes funny and sometimes stooping to embrace the earthy way many delegates love to express themselves to tell them "we must change".
He bowled them over with his insistence that "we must change" when he referred to the constitutional amendments on the abolishment of the quota system saying that he wants no safeguard for his position.
Why should he fear the members as after all he was party president because they wanted him to lead them.
He said if he failed them they certainly have the right to remove him, and they should. After he said "I leave it to members to decide on my position," the delegates went wild and shouts of Hidup Najib! were heard.
At certain times, he stirred their emotions like a street demagogue, like when he asked them at the end of his rounding-up speech whether they wanted to change, and their reply was a thunderous Ya.
Do you want to work hard now? Ya. Do you want to be close to the rakyat? Ya. Do you want to make the party strong? Ya. Do you want to serve the rakyat? Ya.
Some Umno members who came as observers were cynical about the ya to this and ya to that of the delegates.
They said hopefully their commitment is real this time. In the past their commitment lasts until they have returned to their hotel rooms and folded away their "Umno uniforms" into their suitcases.
There were times when Najib was like a lawyer in court making his submission before members of a jury, gesticulating this way and that, pointing this way and that, and turning this way and that, and sometimes showing his side profiles and sometimes facing them.
After such a stellar performance how else could the jury rule, except in his favour. But as he himself admitted it, the BN big win in Bagan Pinang was a significant help.
"Imagine if we were to lose?" he quipped.
Thus, there was no end to the praises heaped on Tan Sri Isa Samad, the man who was disciplined by Umno for involvement in money politics but chosen as the candidate for Bagan Pinang. Najib explained to the delegates why Isa was chosen.
Isa was a local boy, popular Umno leader of Teluk Kemang, where Bagan Pinang is, and popular with the Malays and non-Malays. Even after he was punished he remained a loyal Umno member. So why should Isa be punished a second time?
And now for Najib, having emerged as the undisputed leader of Umno, and winning the right to tell other parties of the BN to put their houses in order, comes the hard part: Convincing the whole country that the new BN way is the way to go.
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