‘Umno has to be multiracial if MCA, MIC can’t function’
INTERVIEW | Increasingly disillusioned by its communalism, Umno founder Onn Jaafar left the party in 1951 after his call for it be opened to all races went unheard.
He formed the multiracial Independence of Malaya Party that same year. But the party was shortlived – it was dissolved soon after it won just one seat in the 1952 Kuala Lumpur municipal election.
In the nearly seven decades since, Umno has remained a Malay-only party, but the idea of opening up its membership to the country’s other ethnic communities re-emerged after its first-ever federal electoral defeat in the May 9 polls...
INTERVIEW | Increasingly disillusioned by its communalism, Umno founder Onn Jaafar left the party in 1951 after his call for it be opened to all races went unheard.
He formed the multiracial Independence of Malaya Party that same year. But the party was shortlived – it was dissolved soon after it won just one seat in the 1952 Kuala Lumpur municipal election.
In the nearly seven decades since, Umno has remained a Malay-only party, but the idea of opening up its membership to the country’s other ethnic communities re-emerged after its first-ever federal electoral defeat in the May 9 polls.
Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin mooted the idea barely a week after the watershed election, saying that the party needs to re-examine its raison d'etre.
Inconceivable as it may have seemed before May 9, the idea has a supporter in Umno's very birthplace – incoming Johor opposition leader Hasni Mohammad.
According to Hasni, if BN coalition partners MIC and MCA remain in the doldrums, then Umno should consider stepping up and rebrand itself as a multiracial party.
“I think if MCA, MIC can't function then a multiracial party has to take their place.
“If MCA and MIC continue to be what we have right now … then (the question of) whether Umno has to rebrand becomes inevitable. We have to do it.
“We can't lead Malays only. We can't be Malay party only,” the Pontian Umno chief told Malaysiakini in an interview in Petaling Jaya.
Referendum in Umno
Hasni cautioned, however, that such a decision must be arrived at through extensive consultation within the party.
“I suppose it is a policy that will have to go through a process of referendum among Umno members. It is not something that can be discussed in the meeting room.
“(It’s) because there is no kampung without Umno. All kampung have an Umno branch.”
Umno retained 54 parliamentary seats in the recent polls, but its major coalition partners suffered devastating results – with MIC winning just two seats, and MCA one.
Even in its traditional stronghold of Johor, Umno retained just 17 of the 32 state seats it held previously. MIC bagged two seats, while MCA was wiped out entirely.
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