The euphoric Bagan Pinang victory added a sense of well being to the UMNO Party as it gathered in mid-October for its General Assembly. The President of UMNO set the tone of the whole assembly as a moment when they “will ink a new chapter in its journey.” Thus began a call for renewal and unity in UMNO with a quote from Surah As-Saff v 4. This text, a Medinan Surah written after the battle of Uhud (AD 625), speaks of the need for 'discipline, practical work and self-sacrifice in the cause of ummah' for success in its enterprise. (cfr The Holy Quran, A Yusuf Ali, p 1538).

And this success, he reminded the UMNO Delegates, can be achieved if one is willing to learn from experience or as the 20th century Philosopher George Santayana whom he quoted said, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. Very astutely, he then challenged the Party, in his maiden speech with the theme Upholding Tradition, Evolving Change, referring to the change from its present blase attitude with regard to its status quo to a dynamically evolving party that will work for all ethnic groups in Malaysia.

He found legitimacy and moral authority in quoting another Al-Quran text which he paraphrased and we quote him here: “The eighth verse of the Surah Al-Maidah in which Allah SWT calls upon us to be fair, to uphold the truth for all races, because being fair is being close to taqwa (piety).” He then explicated this in these words: “If we care for the welfare of the people, then the people, irrespective of race or creed, will willingly support and uphold our leadership.”

Note that the focus here is not the ‘welfare’ of the people first, but the ‘upholding of our leadership’, that will lead UMNO to success in the 13th General Election! Hence much of what follows in the speech is measured and seen from the perspective of the forthcoming General Election. Nevertheless, in the effort to make UMNO “a political party for all” (cfr para 34), we see a positive trend towards eradicating the negative practices of corruption in the party machinery. This is being done by liberalizing the way the top leadership positions are going to be selected in the party. However, the increase in the number of delegates eligible to choose the leaders in the party — from 2,500 to the astronomical figure of 146,000 — may cause the party to become more Malay than Malaysian. Thus our concern when we say that the focus is not the ‘welfare’ of the Malaysian people but of upholding UMNO party leadership.

The mere numerical change not only highlights but also strengthens the path of the Malay Tradition, which protects the race-based political system and gives little support to the concept of 1Malaysia.

In essence, this approach contradicts the “end objective of 1Malaysia which is national unity” (cfr para 75), and the assurances given that the Party is to serve everyone seems feeble as we look more deeply into it.

Even though we are told that there is a departure in our way of understanding national unity — from one of tolerance to that of acceptance, social justice and shared values based on the reality of the supremacy of the Constitution and the Rukun Negara — we believe there will arise monumental objections from certain quarters of society.

One such objection known for certain is the State Enactments, for example, the Control and Restriction of the Propagation of Non-Islamic Religions Enactment which forbids the use of certain Malay words besides ‘Allah’. This Enactment contradicts the right of “every group to manage its own religious affairs,” (Const Art 11.3a). So, where does the supremacy of the Constitution and the Rukun Negara stand? Moreover, the president’s speech indicates that there are “core provisions such as Article 3, Article 4, Article 152, Article 153 as well as Part II and III of the Federal Constitution” that will be upheld, (cfr para 77). Why was Article 11 not mentioned?

We agree with the UMNO president that we are living in a historical moment and it is an opportune time for Upholding Tradition and Evolving Change that will enable us to realise 1Malaysia. We hope the assurances given by the president and the words uttered match what is being put into practice and the contradictions mentioned above are resolved.

So, UMNO lead the way to be a party that has the welfare of not a single race but rather all races in mind — and celebrate plurality and diversity!