Author: Help, not crush, Umno

Author and academician Dr Ooi Kee Beng said Umno should be assisted and not crushed in its attempt to reform itself.

Launching his book entitled ‘ Lost in Transition: Malaysia under Abdullah ’ in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, Ooi ( photo ) expressed concern over the future of Umno which may resort to fascism.

“Umno is like (Taiwan’s) Kuomintang (KMT) and other parties in the region who were responsible for independence and a lot of these parties had to reform itself like the KMT - a once dictatorial party is a totally a new party today with the same name.

“It is not given that if Umno reforms itself, it would reform like how KMT did - meaning liberalise and play the democratic game. Fascism is always close at hand.

“We don’t want that to be encouraged. We should work to not crush Umno but help it along in its reforming process,” the Penang-born researcher told the audience.

The book is a compilation of articles written by Ooi - who is a fellow at the Institute of South East Asian studies in Singapore - on Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s governance in the last two year.

It is a follow up to his 2006 book, ‘Era of Transition: Malaysia After Mahathir’ which analysed Umno and tests faced by Abdullah after taking over his predecessor Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Asked to explain the message in his new book, he said: “It was what I felt when I put the book together at the end of last year, that something very important was lost.

“There was hope that Malaysia could develop itself in a proper manner and we were actually already on the slippery slope and we did not see any force that could stop it,” he described.

Two main challenges

During the panel discussion, Centre for Public Initiatives Director Dr Lim Teck Ghee highlighted two main challenges for Abdullah in light of the recent elections and the internal feud currently taking place in Umno.

“One that is most crucial is that he has to battle and isolate the extremists elements within Umno and its many faceless supporters, the civil service and the Malay community.

“These are elements that are paved with revenge - launched in a campaign that is sometimes quiet and sometimes quite loud - racial-baiting and incitement,” he explained.

“(The) second challenge is to move firmly and quickly on building a good working relationship with the Pakatan Rakyat-held state governments and together in taking on the scourge of corruption,” he added.

The former World Bank economist noted that three state government’s - Perak, Penang and Selangor - approach in getting officials to declare their assets, introduce policy reforms and a merit-based system could bring change to the country’s economic performance.

“In theory these three state could lead the way to an economic revitalisation for Malaysia. They hold 60 per cent of the gross national product (GNP). Investors all over the world place importance on transparency, accountability and efficiency,” he said.

However he warned that the BN can derail such growth by using federal machinery, state funding and the civil service to play the “revenge, obstructionist or spoilers game”.

“I’m worried. So far the BN has used it’s federal apparatus and resources and are bent on punishing the opposition state government as we’ve seen from (Tourism Minister) Azalina Othman and (Housing and Local Government Minister) Ong Ka Chuan,” he said.

Azalina recently terminated tourism memorandums of understanding with opposition-led state governments. Meanwhile, Ong said he would deliberate on setting up local council election system despite calls from the opposition to do so.

Lim was joined by Malaysiakini ’s editor-in-chief Steven Gan and Ooi during the panel discussion.

The book launch was officiated by deputy Penang chief minister P Ramasamy and was attended by about 80 people.