It has not been the happiest leadership transition for the ruling coalition. Khoo Boo Teik looks at the unusual position the BN is in, having lost four by-elections in the peninsula since the last general election. At the heart of Pakatan Rakyat’s advances is a sea-change at the social level – a phenomenon which has been captured on blogs, websites, and Youtube.
Mahathir suggested that the Japanese would have committed hara-kiri had they been in Abdullah Badawi’s shoes in the wake of the BN’s loss of five states to the Pakatan Rakyat and of its two-thirds majority in Parliament. But, as Tota observes, the former premier himself missed many opportunities to commit hara-kiri in the wake of the numerous scandals that plagued his 22-year administration.
In Kurosawa Akira’s film, Ran, the great Japanese director unsentimentally had his Lear-like lord’s clan torn apart by paternal pride, fraternal fights and external enemies. Who among them – Umno, Mahathir and Abdullah – wouldn’t fear that scenario? Who among them can forestall it, wonders Khoo Boo Teik, in the final segment of a three-part series.
The BN sorely requires reinventing, not least because the MCA, Gerakan and MIC have blamed Umno’s arrogance and excesses for their defeats, writes Khoo Boo Teik, in the second of a three-part series. While Mahathir has gone for broke, Abdullah can neither assuage Umno’s partners’ demoralisation nor reduce Umno’s power within the BN, without which there can be no revitalisation.
The tragedy of Umno, it would seem, has been the lack of intellectuals from the beginning, observes our special correspondent. Umno has never been known to engage in the battle of the mind to solve political, social and economic problems. Umno’s solutions to national problems have always been perceived to be cosmetic.
Mahathir’s departure is the latest and clearest signal that the Umno-Mahathir-Abdullah trinity, hegemonic up to the general election of April 2004, has crumbled, observes Khoo Boo Teik, in the first of a three-part series. For the pretenders to top posts and power-brokers, there’s much to do, stealthily and quickly, because Umno has reached a well-known political condition: the leader is too weak to impose his will, the led are not yet strong enough to depose him.
The honoured title of “Bapa Malaysia” was conferred by a grateful nation on our beloved and revered founding father, Tunku Abdul Rahman. Will Abdullah become known as “Bapa Corridor”, wonders Tota.