It was a slap in the face. A big one.

Indeed, how else can you describe it when the party leader unequivocally appealed to delegates not to the hurt the feelings of other races at the now infamous Malay-only Umno assembly but no one heeded his impassioned plea?

And thus Malaysians saw an ugly display of racism courtesy of satellite TV operator Astro. So much so that the party president himself had to smooth over frayed nerves on the final day of the assembly.

For those with a short memory, let's quick-rewind back to Nov 13 - the eve of the four-day Umno assembly. This was what Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told reporters after his closed-door pre-assembly prep talk:

"I reminded all party members that they must take into account the views of other component parties when raising issues. They must be fair and just in their comments.

"They must avoid adverse reactions from component party members that could damage racial harmony."

The exact opposite happened. Speaker after speaker defied Abdullah. Not only did they spew racist threats against other Malaysians, none even bothered to address one of the party president's pet issues - the fight against graft.

Pent-up frustration

Not surprisingly, the pro-government media had to work overtime to put a gloss on this embarrassing repudiation of the party leader.

And thus their spins - that his winding-up speech showed 'Abdullah was indeed a PM for all Malaysians', that he 'was courageous in daring to go against the grain in Umno' and that the 'open season on non-Malays was necessary to release pent-up frustration'. Ditto.

There was a bout of navel-gazing too on the state of race relations as the country celebrates its 50th Merdeka anniversary, in nine months time to be exact.

Much has been said on what needs to be done - making schools, neighbourhoods and workplaces multiracial, promoting a healthy respect for the different cultures and religions, rewriting our history to reflect the sacrifices and contributions of all races.

But few have pointed out the root cause of our malaise. Malaysia is one of the few nations, if not the only one, where race-based parties continue to exist. So long as this remains so, we are not going to lift ourselves out of this poisonous state of affairs anytime soon.

Warlords call the shots

It is increasingly clear that Abdullah sits at the party helm thanks to the power of incumbency. Still, he is very much at the mercy of Umno chieftains who command the party's rank-and-file.

Which is why, despite making anti-corruption efforts the major plank of his premiership, Abdullah has to use the true and tested way of shoring up political support - throwing money to Umno warlords.

This was done blatantly with RM600 million given - just before the assembly kicked off - to Class F contractors, most of whom are party divisional leaders.

According to Abdullah, this was 'to top up' the RM1.5 billion announced at the post-Umno supreme council meeting press conference on Nov 2.

The billion and a half ringgit, he said, had already been spent and thus another RM600 million was needed. Intriguingly, this money must be used up by next month.

Expect a six-week spending spree as all parliamentary constituencies - with the exception of Sarawak where Umno has no presence - get RM3 million each.

The rush to beat the deadline is underscored by the requirement that contractors must start work three days after being awarded the contract. Of course, there are no open tenders for these projects.

Corruption, Pak Lah-style

Call it what you will - pork barreling, money politics, political patronage - it amounts to the same thing - corruption with a big 'C'.

And this coming from the man who vowed to battle corruption in this country. There's a Malay phrase to describe Abdullah's largesse, 'Cakap tak serupa bikin' - loosely translated as 'Do as I say, don't do as I do'.

No wonder Umno delegates didn't give two hoots to his 'be mindful of other races' plea.