Priciples, Values, Morality - Irrelevant when chosing next UMNO President...

Just look at what is happening with regard the UMNO Divisional nominations whereby Mohd Najib Razak has to date have had all the nominations made for the post of President of UMNO - No one else have received a single nomination for the post of President.

Scandals and allegation relating to his involvement with now-deceased Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu, and allegations of corruption just have no effect in the manner in which the UMNO Division nominations have been coming in...

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has to date got no nominations yet. Would he get more than the i he got the last time? I wonder.

Nominations for Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak for the post of Umno president continued to nudge up despite the cloud of scandal hanging over him.

MCPX

The 55-year-old received the thumbs-up from Tuaran division in Sabah, raising his tally of nomination to 29. - Malaysiakini, 15/10/2008 - Najib nominations rise despite allegations

Well for persons at the Division levels, the only concern is not to get into the bad books of who will ultimately be the President (and maybe even the Prime Minister if Pakatan Rakyat do not take over before that...) - because if not, there may be implications. The amount financial benefits and economic perks that will flow from the top to the 'loyal' ones' may be different from the 'dis-loyal ones'...mmm

Principles and values are of little or no importance.

Now that he has got 29, all others will most likely follow the flow... (Safe for a few, no Division will be brave enough to stand against the flow...)

Now if Tengku Razaleigh had 29 in the first week, then Ku Li would most likely get the rest of the nominations..

If Ku Li had got at least 10 in the 1st weekend, then we may be looking towards a contest come March 2009 for the post of President - we would have seen greater democracy in UMNO.

But, as it is, the reasons that is of concern to Division leaders -- is money, contract, tenders, economic well-being and posssibly their own personal political survival.

In my opinion, the problem that plagues UMNO and some of the other BN component party members is its own 'new members' who have joined since the last 30 years or more. This problem has become compounded also by reason that the UMNO led- BN has been in power for far too long - 50 over years.

'Why did you join UMNO?', one may ask. Many did, I believe, because they wanted to get 'contracts' and goodies that joining the party would bring them especially if they managed to became leaders at branches...leaders at Divisions...leaders.... The drive to become leaders is many a times not because of better ideas or a different agenda or a better program -- but because it will bring me more WEALTH and power for the ME...how sad.

The earlier members of UMNO, MCA, MIC...may have joined because of what the party stood for - the objects, the values, the principles, the struggle...but the many of the later ones joined for the benefits that they hoped to reap...

As such, if the Pakatan Rakyat takes over Federal Government, many of these members of BN component parties will hop over not because they believe in the struggles and ideology of PAS, DAP and PKR --- but because that is where the new goodies will be coming from.

Many BN members in the states that have been taken over by the Pakatan Rakyat has suddenly found their taps of wealth start to run dry...and their powers and influences just fading away. How long can they survive? Will they stay true until the next general elections ...or will they like ants just move to where the sugar is.

Semangat 46 just could not take the hardship of 'dry taps' - and as such they went back and joined UMNO. I recall the day when Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (Ku Li) was the icon - the 'leader' of the Opposition and civil society - the hope for a change....just like Anwar Ibrahim in 1998 onwards...

And like Semangat 46, I believe many of the ex-UMNO who were in PKR have also started moving back to UMNO - and the main reason is that they cannot live with 'dry taps'. If the Pakatan Rakyat did not do as well as it did in GE2008, in capturing 5 states, I am sure that many more of these ex-UMNO, ex-MCA and ex-MIC types would just slowly got back to the parties of BN where the pipes are flowing with milk and honey...

So, it is not values or principles that is causing Mohd Najib Razak to get all the nominations for Presidency - but the concern about money matters, the being in the winning camp, political survival ...that seems to be the nature of UMNO members sitting and voting at the Division levels.

If not so, then with all them allegations of possible involvement in murder and corruption floating around about Najib, many would have preferred just some other person to the the head of beloved UMNO...

Can we really expect any better from UMNO members...?

Today members of PKR, DAP and PAS will say that they are not like that...BUT beware theyu may be one day, if they are not careful, since these parties are already government in 5 states - and may soon even be the new Federal Government...

It may be good for UMNO and the other BN parties to be in Opposition for a few years - it may be good for the party. It can be a time to weed out those 'parasites' that are only there for so long they can get their 'monies', their projects, etc....It can be a time to re-evaluate and re-develop objectives, mission, principles....

We shall see how the UMNO nominations proceeds for the next 3 weeks or so...which will confirm the general nature and characteristic of the UMNO member...