I am appalled at the lack of outrage with former Sabah Chief Minister Osu Sukam's massive gambling debts.

I am not surprised at the depravity and venality that an individual is capable of, but I am astounded that someone like him could rise to such heights in Umno. That is an indictment of the system.

The best that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi could muster was to declare that Osu had "failed as a leader". That must surely rank as the greatest understatement. Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the man who appointed Osu, was curiously quiet.

Umno Youth leaders, those self-appointed guardians of Malay honour and Ketuanan Melayu (Malay hegemony), also did not see fit to comment. As for the Umno disciplinary board, it has already closed shop!

Presumably to all these people, Osu is not an aberration; his egregious behavior no longer shocking but is rather, the norm for Umno.

Umno ulama , usually quick to condemn Malay women for not wearing the tudung, are also strangely silent. If as a Muslim Osu openly flouts God's laws, imagine the respect he has for such man-made ones as our anti-corruption laws.

The police too are waiting for someone to lodge a report, all in the best tradition of our civil service, 'Saya menuggu arahan' (I await orders).

To the authorities, Ayah Pin's 'Sky Kingdom' commune ( photo ) poses a greater threat than Osu's misdeeds.

That gambling debt was uncovered not by some inquisitive journalists or aggressive investigators from the Anti-Corruption Agency, but in sworn court documents.

Sordid landscape

Osu's gambling mania, Umno vice-president Mohd Isa Samad's 'money politics', and International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz's Approved Permit (AP) controversy are all part of the same sordid political landscape. The characters that emerge depend on which part of the scene we care to look at carefully.

A few years ago, the Australian authorities literally caught then Selangor chief minister Muhammad Muhd Taib with millions of dollars. His counsel succeeded on a technicality: that Muhd Taib did not understand the Customs declaration written in English. The facts of the case were never disputed.

Nonetheless that did not prevent him from being re-elected Umno vice-president. Now he is busy lecturing Umno members on you guessed it! the evils of corruption.

Osu had no significant assets, inherited or acquired, before entering politics. His salary as chief minister would not even make a dent on the interest payments of his debts. If the government could not convict him of corruption, then surely it could at a minimum nail him for income tax evasion.

Irony lost

At its recent general assembly, Umno Deputy President Najib Abdul Razak talked loftily of "Glokal Malays" capable of competing locally as well as globally.

Meanwhile, Umno Youth leaders, the future of the party, were clamouring for extending quotas, special privileges and other elements of the New Economic Policy. That is, more 'crutches'. The obvious irony was lost on everyone.

Surprisingly, there was little discussion of the 'Towering Malay Personality'. That was last month's flavour. Nor was there any chest thumping over Selangor's impending celebration of its 'developed status'. Give Umno members credit; even they are not buying that baloney!

Only a few weeks ago Umno was consumed with money politics, yet not a word was uttered about it at the assembly. Instead, the controversy was on doling out APs for importing cars. I wonder what the flavour-of-the-month will be in September!

It is as if the organisation and its members were afflicted with collective Attention Deficit Disorder. The distinguished Royal Professor Ungku Aziz aptly called this the belalang (grasshopper) syndrome.

This critter hops from one field to the next, leaving only its droppings and barren leaves as its legacy. A farm could tolerate a few grasshoppers, but not a swarm. That could lay bare a lush field within hours. This plague now threatens Malays, as well as Malaysia.

The professor chose an appropriately agrarian metaphor in contrast to my clinical one in the hope that Umno members would get it. They did not.

The AP controversy degenerated into an unseemly public spat between Mahathir ( right ) and his erstwhile ardent supporter Rafidah ( left ), with Abdullah being reduced to an irrelevant bystander. In the end, nothing was changed; it was business as usual until next year's assembly.

During the spat, it was the Iron Lady, not Mahathir, who cried. Unlike the real Iron Lady of Britain, this kampong variety is for U-turns (against Mahathir), as long as she can keep her cabinet post.

Ugly stereotype

These Umno shenanigans are all manifestations of the same underlying systemic pathology: corruption. Yet the dreaded 'C' word was never uttered. There was an air of unreality or fantasy in all the official pronouncements.

They, leaders and followers alike, were obsessed with battling the signs and symptoms of the disease but blissfully ignored the underlying cancer.

Umno repeatedly asserts that it represents Malays. Indeed it does. Sadly, the picture it presents of our race to the world generally and to non-Malays in Malaysia specifically is less than flattering. As a Malay, this is what I find so highly offensive.

I believe that Allah in His wisdom has granted Malays our fair share of the wise, honest and talented. It has been my privilege to meet many of them in Malaysia as well as abroad.

What baffles me is why they are not found in Umno. That fact that Umno attracts the likes of Isa ( right ) and Osu ( left ) and worse, the likes of them thrive in Umno, reflects less on Malays and more on Umno. At least that is my hope.

What incenses me most is when non-Malays presume (not unreasonably in view of the pronouncements of Umno leaders) that these Umno characters represent the typical if not the best Malays. It infuriates me even more when these Umno Malays exhibit the ugly stereotype of our race.

Umno's failing is systemic, not of individuals. Stated more directly, Umno is corrupt to the core. Suspending few selected individuals is not enough.

That would be like killing the rooster to scare the monkeys, as the Chinese say. It would attract their attention with the commotion, but only briefly. Then they would be back to, well, monkey business.

The cancer in Umno has metastasised. The patient needs both radical surgery and aggressive chemotherapy. Unfortunately, its healer is incapable of anything more than reciting supplications and dispensing sermons. Malaysia needs a cancer surgeon, not a chanting shaman.

Lamentably there is yet no serious self-examination on the part of Umno's leadership. Until this is undertaken, speeches about a towering Malay personality, 'Glokal' Malay, and Ketuanan Melayu will remain just that.