COMMENT What transpired at the Umno general assembly on Thursday was nothing short of bizarre - a leader was hailed with a standing ovation for breaking a promise.

 

It was also astonishing that a prime minister could announce his decision to cave in to pressure with grand bravado and heroic theatrics.

 

Is this the legacy that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak wishes to leave behind? For history to remember him as a leader who made promises but failed to deliver? Who pledges to take the nation one step forward, but instead, takes it 10 steps backwards.

 

Then again, while his speeches, slogans and media blitz might have portrayed him as a statesman, Najib, however, is nothing more than another run-of-the-mill politician willing to do whatever necessary to remain in power.

 

Some accused him of playing to the Umno gallery when he announced that the Sedition Act would be maintained, but it is the all-powerful gallery which played him, boxing Najib into a corner and forcing him to perform a somersault.

 

And so instead of transforming the nation, Najib took the safer route and transformed himself instead.

 

His gravest mistake was to outsource the “thinking department” to foreign public relations agencies, sidestepping the Umno inner circle and its right-wing warlords who are unwilling to change.

 

As in the words of veteran newsman A Kadir Jasin, a close associate of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Najib had miscalculated and misread the Umno ground.

                                                           

His advisers had injected “strange and lofty ideas” into his head such as transformation, 1Malaysia, inclusiveness, as well as repealing the draconian Internal Security Act and Sedition Act.

 

And eager to meet the demands of a new Malaysia, Najib went public with these proposals even before getting the blessings of those in Umno, especially its grand wizard Mahathir.

 

Najib should have anticipated the internal opposition and realise that he does not have the gumption as well as the support within the party to bulldoze through his new policies.

 

Umno must first be transformed

 

He has indeed failed to understand that in order to transform Malaysia, Umno must be transformed first. To do otherwise, would place his neck on the chopping block.

 

There were murmurs about the pro-Sedition Act faction using the debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) to twist the prime minister’s arm, forcing him to make a U-turn.

 

Whatever the reasons for this dramatic reversal, Najib’s reputation has clearly taken another beating. By conceding on the Sedition Act, he may have given his political career a lifeline, but the vital signs are already failing.

 

In his defence, Umno minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan pinned the blame on Malaysians for having thwarted the prime minister’s noble intention of dismantling the Act with their repeated hate spewing.

 

Granted that there are those, especially on the social media, who make absurd, crude, racist offensive and unintelligible remarks about Islam, the Malays and rulers.

 

But these are isolated incidents, the perpetrators far and few in between, unlike the impression given by the minister that the people of this nation are running amok with sedition.

 

On the other hand, there is an avalanche of seditious comments by top Umno leaders and groups linked to the party, which are ironically, the very same forces objecting to the Sedition Act being abolished.

 

So perhaps Abdul Rahman premised his argument on what he had heard at the Umno general assembly, where delegates made incendiary claims on, for example the Quran being torched, without even bothering to ascertain the facts.

 

Put simply, this is the recipe for Umno’s survival - for it to remain in the seat of power, the siege mentality must prevail and hence the need for shadow boxing with imaginary opponents. 

 

 RK ANAND and FATHI ARIS OMAR are members of Malaysiakini team.

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