I refer to the Malaysiakini report 'BN doesn't share same dream anymore'.

Khairy Jamaluddin is right to say that Umno is not in crisis. In fact, Umno has become too strong and as a result, BN now finds it difficult to win elections.

Why is this so?

Umno's strength is not BN's strength. BN's strength was its multi-racial appeal but this has taken a hard knock with the majority of non-Malays switching support to the opposition.

In a coalition of race-based parties, the strong must limit its strength so that other component parties do not seem subservient. If this happens the community will desert them in droves.

BN needs the non-Malay vote, that much is clear. With the Malays politically split almost down the middle, it is the non-Malay votes which carry a powerful impact.

However, we find Umno leaders talking about strengthening Umno which will actually make the problem worse when they should be thinking about repairing Umno's relationship with the component parties.

Umno has two choices - to win back the non-Malay vote or to become more rightist in an effort to gain extra Malay votes to compensate for the loss of non-Malay votes.

However, Malaysian society has evolved and matured so much that becoming ultra-nationalist does not gain more Malay votes but instead lose more non-Malay votes.

A zero sum game has become a negative sum game.

The two recent by-elections in which racial sentiments were played to the hilt but which BN still lost should be a wake-up call for Umno that what used to work no longer works.