YOURSAY | Mutation in Umno’s DNA makes it a more virulent strain

YOURSAY | ‘Umno has degenerated from a nationalist party in early Merdeka days to what it is today…’

No worthy PM candidate without ‘Umno DNA’ - former BN minister

Kural: Former minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek makes a pertinent point - that historically Umno DNA has had primacy or even exclusivity in providing Malay leadership. But not necessarily for the reasons he presents in support of his arguments.

There are a few straightforward reasons for Umno’s supremacy. But surely not for reasons of having extensively trained, altruistically responsible and moral leadership that any developing nation would wish for.

It’s has been increasingly obvious in recent decades that we have an inadequacy or dearth in that regard.

Some can constructively argue that except for a string of Umno leaders during and under the tenure of our first, second and our third PM, those who followed after have not effectively guided our national development.

One wonders if the last three decades of our nation’s prosperity, which to many seems squandered irresponsibly, is the real-world demonstration of Umno’s leadership failures.

Our honourable former minister may be much appreciated if he shows prudence to examine if there is something that has corrupted the once fine Umno DNA instead of sounding like a mouse that roared.

Kim Quek: The blunt truth is that Umno has degenerated from a nationalist party in early Merdeka days to what it is today – a hive of kleptocrats and racists. I can’t recall having recognised any prominent Umno leaders who are not racist and corrupt in recent years.

And since Umno has neither repented nor reformed since it was overthrown from power two years ago, there is no future for the country in either national unity or the economy if Umno continues to rule either as a dominant force or a component of a coalition.

Hence, it is a matter of life or death for the country that Pakatan Harapan should rise again to lead the country out of the present doom.

Cyclonus: “[...]Many insult Umno with many labels. This includes labels of being corrupt or thieves. However, the leader they criticise immediately become embraceable as soon as they leave Umno,” said Ahmad Shabery.

The politicians that left Umno when Umno was in power left more so because they couldn't stomach what Umno stood for - thieving from the very people they were charged to protect and feed.

And the rakyat is especially disgusted with the Umno politicians who not only stood by and watch it happen but defended those who stole blatantly and persecuted those who spoke up against them instead of upholding all that is good for all Malaysians.

This "Umno DNA" is archaic thinking. It only reflects a culture of supremacist bigotry that suppresses the progressive evolution of society.

Evin K: Ahmad Shabery is right, all of Malaysia’s PM candidates, thus far, are from or have origins in Umno, and that’s because Malaysian politics have been set on an uneven playing field since the time of our independence.

The cold hard truth is that there are plenty of competent PM candidates from other political parties, but that will require Malaysian politics to adopt an approach that goes beyond race and skin colour, and be based purely on merit and hard work.

How are we to achieve that when we are still not ready to accept all fellow citizens of Malaysia as equals? So until that day comes, it is little wonder why PM candidates will only hail from the most dominant single-race party in Malaysia.

Anonymous 2413471460628504: There are plenty with the capability to rule this country and for a change, to rule it well.

Unfortunately, they are from the wrong race or if they were the right race, they were probably buried because they wanted to walk the straight and narrow and the majority in the ruling party cannot allow their gravy train to be stopped.

An example of a capable man would be the late Lee Kuan Yew. Just look at Singapore now and compare it with Malaysia. We fell behind Singapore years ago, and are falling behind Thailand and Vietnam.

Soon we will behind Indonesia, and it will all be thanks to leaders with Umno DNA.

Just Thinking Aloud: It's not that there is no one without a history of involvement in Umno that is capable of leading Malaysia as the PM, but will he or she be accepted by the majority?

With the constant promotion and harping on the 3Rs (race, religion, royalty), will any capable non-Malay/non-Muslim personality out of Umno (or PAS) be 'allowed' the chance to serve the nation as a PM?

As it is, even a relatively minor ministerial position such as a finance minister held by a non-Malay already elicited much adverse reactions and protests.

RengitBP: In Malaysia, listen to what was not said, by whom it wasn’t said and to whom it wasn’t said.

To change the country, we need the majority to come along with the rest in GE15. To make them come along, they must not feel disrespected. There are ways to get points across without condescension.

I remember watching an interview of Tharman Shanmugaratnam of Singapore when he was DPM. When asked whether he would be the next PM, his answer was circumspect - in essence, even Singapore is not ready to have a leader from the minorities, no matter how good he is, to become PM.

Newday: Even our now staunchly anti-Umno family had Umno state representatives about 25 years ago. Why do we not support or have Umno links today is due to what happened to our last state representative who was honest and upright.

That person would not play along with the cronyism and the under-counter payments and worked hard to reform this mentality. But to no avail and that person was basically was driven out by those who were beholden to the criminals within.

Morally and ethically upstanding people do still exist, but are becoming a smaller percentage all the time and my assessment is that within five years they will disappear forever. Who will be left? No need to answer that question.

I don't care who becomes PM, or from which party (apart from PAS), as long as this person is PM for the country first and their beloved political party second. So far Malay PMs over the last 30 years have been sadly lacking in this regard.

Funny, this is the voter spread in my family - I am for PSM; my wife used to be DAP, now PKR but will most likely switch back to DAP; one son is for PAS; two others, Amanah; one daughter, DAP, and the rest don't care.

Dinner conversations when we are all together are fascinating. Everyone agrees as to what is required from a prime minister though and all agree that the last crop from Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and onwards fails to measure up.

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