The announcement by the PM that he would not contest the upcoming Umno elections has, more or less, chartered an almost certain premiership for Najib Abdul Razak when the incumbent leaves.

Observation has been made that with the cited ‘larger than life’ figure of Dr Mahathir Mohamad looming in the background, Malaysian democracy and the recent gains to the changes in the political landscape may take a backstage with Najib becoming more autocratic as in the days of Mahathir’s rule. Zaid Ibrahim, the former de facto law minister who had resigned from Pak Lah’s cabinet because of the indiscriminate use of the ISA, too, has expressed similar sentiments.

While the forces for such enthusiasm to impose their will remains real, the march towards ‘freedom’ from the clutches of ‘Mahathirism’ has taken centerstage with Mahathir’s voice as distant as ever, insofar as the majority of the population are concerned.

A cursory look/analysis of the sort of visitors to his Che Det website will give a clue as to who are those who are still in favour of Mahathir. There are the people, no matter what, who will support the euphoria he has created, while the wider spectrum of the population has moved on to creating a better Malaysia for all Malaysians.

It is the same Mahathir who sadly found that the kissing of hands and the perceived reverence people had for him had vanished into thin air once he relinquished his office as the PM and could not even get elected as a delegate to the Umno general assembly, supporting his decry that ‘Melayu muda lupa’.

His antics only works with a selected group, as was the case during the recent general election. He has little or no impact on the non-Malays and the Malay vote has been split anyway. Those who believe in governance and rule of law, such as Zaid Ibrahim, have shown that they do not need Mahathir to come to their cause, as all Malaysians, can share the dreams and support one another without the bogeys and mustered divisions that have sorely sapped the nation into being relegated to losing its early achieved advantages.

No one needs Mahathir or the likes of him to remind Malaysians as to what has been guaranteed to Malaysians, Malays in particular, the special position of Islam, etc. Non-Malays have undisputed reverence and respect towards the Rulers.

In ways more than one, the wisdom of Mahathir had shone. During the 1999 elections, realising that his government was shaky, he made a pact with the Chinese groups, only to break them after the elections and even calling them communists. If not for the support of the east Malaysian electorate, he would probably have lost his two-thirds majority.

He kept harping on the May 13 issue with full page advertisements in mainstream newspapers on this, which showed his desperation to win at all costs, rather than relying on his track record which he seems to be so proud of. Many BN candidates won with wafer-thin margins.

Najib scraped through, I think, with only slightly more than 200 votes in Pekan, the bastion of Umno from his father’s days.

It was in this backdrop of his declining popularity that he realised, wisdom as one can put it, to relinquish his premiership. He knew that his credibility among the Chinese guilds and associations had taken a beating on his failure to honour his promises prior to the 1999 elections, in addition to the people’s growing awareness of their rights boosted by another major factor – the Internet.

Slowly but surely, Malaysians started realising that there were alternative mediums to get alternative and reliable news and share their views in an open manner.

When Pak Lah became the premier, it was as if fresh air overtook the hitherto odour in the country. People saw in him, and believed too, that he would be a certain departure from Mahathirism. With his promises of a clean administration and restoring the civil rights of the rakyat plus the commissioning of a royal commission to determine what was wrong with our police force, the people loved him and Mahathir was almost history.

In fact, Mahathir did comment that he may not have achieved the colossal success achieved by Pak Lah in the 2004 elections. He knew that people’s awareness had grown and there is not much he could do as he did in his heydays.

How Pak Lah could waste this massive support would be discussed and debated for years to come. He may have provided some space for flexibility for people to air their views but contrary to what has been claimed, his rule was not much of a difference as was seen in his penchant for and in the indiscriminate use of the ISA, the unprecedented arrogance of his ministers and Umno, the unmitigated corruption, etc all which have irked the people.

One great disadvantage Pak Lah and his administration faced was the onslaught from the Internet community. He chose an information minister who belonged to a distant past and who not only dismissed the Internet community as having little or no impact on the populace at large, but most probably lacked the wisdom as to how the Internet worked.

Most opposition politicians took to the Internet (mainly due to the denial of space in the mainstream news media) like ducks to water and it was only after the elections that Pak Lah and his ‘wise’ ministers realised their folly on how important and crucial the Internet had become.

One only needs to ask as to how much of impact does Mahathir or his views have on the non -Malays. Most see them through the ‘reject’ or ‘suspicious’ lenses. His argument that Malays had voted for the opposition because of Pak Lah seems to stretch his imagination a bit too far. Pak Lah turned his back on his own wisdom and refused to believe in himself. Rather, he was consummated by Umno’s culture which was being rejected even by the Malays, as he would find out later.

In fact, his popularity was soaring when he abandoned Mahathir’s mega-projects, freed Anwar (so to speak, which would not have happened with Mahathir at the helm). Under pressure, he went back to ‘Mahathir’s ways’ and went the way of Umno that Mahathir created instead of reforming it and for that, he paid a very heavy price.

If only he had stood his ground and moved Umno away from Mahathir, which he could have and has only himself to blame for not doing so, history would have heaped accolades on him.

It can be Najib or anyone else. That they have to be content with and handle a more matured Malaysian population and to draw them to their side is amply clear. Strong-arm tactics of the Mahathir era would only dilute further the power of the BN government. The component parties have been dealt with a severe blow because of the belief by their supporters that their interests have been severely compromised by their leaders to Umno.

These component parties are still sticking with Umno and Barisan because of their immediate and certain demise and withered political power if they leave the coalition, unlike the gradual demise they would face if they trot along with Umno and BN. The distrust of Umno by the non- Malays has never been this high and rightly Umno and whoever heads it should start with reforms within Umno first and charter a course away from the Mahathir era politics, a no easy matter.

It would be fair to assume that Umno in its present form is seen to be synonymous with Mahathir and his era type of politics and it is this that eventually spelt the downfall of Pak Lah.

As is Samy Vellu to MIC, so is Mahathir to Umno. Samy will drag MIC down with him and it is not difficult to see that it will be consigned to history books in the future, if that is a kind way to put it. No matter how emotionally it is approached, Umno will suffer the same fate unless there are the likes of Ku Li who can see where Umno is heading to.

Living in the past seems to provide more comfort than seeking reality. The last time Umno faced a crisis, it was relegated to the shelf having been declared illegal, conspicuously during the time of Mahathir. Anwar Ibrahim was once potrayed as an ‘ultra-Malay’ but today his form of inclusive and multi-racial politics have been widely accepted by not only the non-Malays but also by a reasonably wide cross-section of the Malays if the Permatang Pauh by-election is of any indication.

Unlike those who say and believe that Malaysia is at a crossroads, I do not subscribe to that belief anymore. We have crossed the road on March 8 this year and it does not matter whether it is the BN or PR which rules.

The expectation of either of them by the rakyat will be similar and while PR have started to race forward comfortably, BN has a lot a catching-up to do. Instead of the often heard rhetoric of wanting to reform but hardly there is any to see in reality, it is the future of BN and Umno that is at the crossroads.

Unless it charters a new, plausible and relevant cause while moving away from Mahathirism, it will not be determining what its future will be. Mahathirism may appeal to some or even many in Umno but Umno does not hold sway to a majority on its own anymore.