By, Political Analysis
The history of UMNO itself has seen Prime Ministers from UMNO such as Tun Abdul Razak, Tun Hussien Onn, and Tun Abdullah Badawi who were not UMNO Presidents when they were appointed Prime Ministers.
Every event that happens has a consequence. For example. The 13 May, 1969, was the main factor that led to Tunku Abdul Rahman downfall as Prime Minister.
At that time, there was no problem with UMNO politics, and so there was no need for UMNO to hand over the presidency to Tun Abdul Razak. In his farewell speech as UMNO President on 23.1.1971, Tunku said he did not want to be an obstacle to the progress of UMNO or the country.
As an English proverb says, proof of the pudding is in the eating. So Tunku asked that UMNO members give their full support to Tun Abdul Razak to lead the party and govern the country.
Tun Abdul Razak only became the President of UMNO on 24.1.1971 that was after one year upon becoming Prime Minister on 22.8.1970.
So the spirit of Tunku should be emulated by Zahid Hamidi and the entire UMNO leadership throughout the country. What’s more, Ismail Sabri managed to prove his ability to govern the country, navigate national politics, and bring about stability into the country’s.
UMNO won big in Melaka general elections because of the above factors. BERSATU lost big even though it posted “abah” posters in all parts of Melaka.
The indication is evident that if Ismail Sabri leads UMNO as UMNO President, then UMNO’s great and glorious success will be repeated as in PRU11 when the party was being led by Pak Lah.
At that time, Pak Lah carried the image of ‘Mr. Clean’. Today, Ismail Sabri also brings a clean and humble image that captivates the people’s hearts.
If we go back to the era of Tun Dr Mahathir, who was in power for 22 years in UMNO and the Government, the only thing Tun M could not do was unite the main opposition parties such as DAP and PKR to agree to work together to support the government from outside.
Najib himself, who controlled the government and UMNO for nine years, could not worked with DAP and PKR.
However, under Ismail Sabri as Prime Minister, DAP and PKR not only collapsed in Melaka but was humbled in the recently concluded general elections in Sarawak.
So, what other arguments need to be presented to strengthen the arguments for Ismail Sabri to be made UMNO President? A favorable circumstance cannot be passed. Opportunity does not come twice. The probable reason why UMNO Youth Chief did not win in the election was because he was always going against the flow.
Look at Najib’s mistake, the author of his book Roman Bose stated that Najib missed the chance to win big because the former missed a good timing for him to call PRU14 between in June and December of 2017.
At that time, Tun Dr Mahathir and BERSATU were still in disarray and so too their relations with DAP and PKR. Unfortunately, Najib also wanted to wait for the best time that never came for him. Eventually, Najib was defeated because he did not use the situation in his favour.
Similar to the situation in UMNO today, the problem is in favour of UMNO and BN. This is proven in the PRN of Melaka and Sarawak. It is also evidenced through international economic reports on the Malaysian economy. Indeed, the numbers on the Stock Exchange will increase further if our country has strong leadership in the party and government, especially political stability.
NEW HOPE
Ismail Sabri is the new hope, a new hope for local and foreign business people. And for Malaysia.
The UMNO leadership must look ahead. Do not miss the opportunity, let alone the opposition pact that is now appearing to be collapsing in the eyes of the people.
This is not to say that Zahid would not make a good Prime Minister. All people know that his court cases will only harm UMNO. The current situation is not in Zahid’s favour, that’s all. There is no hatred for Zahid as a person.
Similarly, there is no hatred for Najib, but the court cases he is currently facing, especially the 1MDB case, is not going to make him popular and electable.
During PRU14, the 1MDB issue was the leading cause of UMNO and BN’s downfall. UMNO and the Government certainly do not want it to happen again.
Inevitably, the only candidate accepted by the Yang DiPertuan Agong as Prime Minister last August was Ismail Sabri. Today, Ismail Sabri is also the most suitable to hold the post of UMNO President.
Think about it. Be a little clever. Get out of the cocoon. Think outside the box.
Dr. Zach
Putrajaya.
