COMMENT Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), the country’s newest political party, wants to be the new, better Umno. Detractors criticise its ethnic platform. Supporters say it is necessary to steal Umno voters and oust Najib Abdul Razak.

But is Bersatu even viable to begin with? Splinter parties usually face unique challenges when they compete with their parents for membership, resources and ideological space. Do parties like Bersatu tend to do well?

It isn’t the first splinter party. PAS and PKR were Umno offshoots. Umno’s own founder and first president, Onn Ja’afar, founded not one, but two breakaway parties.

But the party most similar to Bersatu is Semangat 46, formed in the aftermath of Umno’s hotly-contested 1987 leadership race. The party was an anti-Mahathir Mohamad vehicle that pitched itself as a return to the ‘original’ spirit of Umno. Its challenges tell us a lot about Bersatu’s problems today.

What’s in a name?

When Mahathir won Umno’s party elections in 1987 by a razor-thin margin, 11 members disputed the results and went to court. Thanks to a technical argument by Mahathir’s team, Umno was declared illegal.

Both sides rushed to register a new party to succeed Umno. Tengku Razaleigh-aligned leaders tried to register ‘Umno Malaysia’ and ‘Umno 46’ but failed. Mahathir’s ‘Umno Baru’ won in the end.

It is clear why they scrambled. A familiar party name does a lot of heavy lifting for you. For voters, the Umno name has many built-in associations - protecting Malays, good business, independence, government, and so on.

Hearing ‘Semangat 46’ (or ‘Bersatu’), on the other hand, tells voters little - they have to learn a lot of new information on their own. It would be like a new smartphone maker entering the market to compete with Apple and Samsung.

Of course, all new parties and politicians struggle with recognition. They can overcome it - but it is expensive.

Money and resources

The logistics of running a party and winning elections costs money - no avoiding it. Organising ceramah, printing banners, renting, travelling, buying advertising space, hiring staff - all of this needs money.

To build campaign machinery, parties also need to know who its reliable volunteers and members are. It needs to know who will donate money. It needs people who can touch base with the grassroots. This information is valuable - and takes time to acquire.

The scramble to succeed the old Umno in 1988 was not just a fight over the name. The new Umno would inherit all the old party’s resources - its top-secret ‘political fund’ worth tens of millions, various other assets and business interests held by members for the party, control over media outlets like Utusan Melayu and the New Straits Times, plus whatever other data and information the party owned.

Semangat 46 was at a major disadvantage - on a purely logistical level, it had to start from scratch while Umno Baru could mostly get back to business.

The same goes for Bersatu. It is cashless compared to the Umno business juggernaut. It has no newspapers to act as propaganda arms. It cannot woo big private donors who need government contracts and business. It also has no mysterious Saudi donors (yet)...