Much has been made of the proposal by some that Barisan Nasional parties should collapse into one  single entity in order to appeal to the increasingly multiracial-minded electorate, especially in the urban and semi-urban areas.

Laudable as the idea may sound, standing in its way are always the hawks and ultra forces within Umno that are convinced more than ever now that the time and age when the Malay party has to accommodate its weaker partners are over.

Umno alone won 88 seats in GE13. With Parti Perkasa Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB) firmly behind it, BN can easily secure a simple majority by co-opting smaller partners in the future elections, should it play its cards well.

After all, Abdul Taib Mahmud is a feudal lord who rules Sarawak like a fiefdom. As he is grooming his son to take over, any move to upset the current power alignment would be met with the fiercest resistance from him.

It is also clear from the GE13 results that Umno is now practically a rural-based party. As long as the malapportionment and gerrymandering of constituency boundaries see minimal changes, all that Umno needs is to concentrate more resources on consolidating and expanding its influence in the rural seats.

azlan Opening up the media and allowing freer flow of information, hence, will continue to be an ultimate pipe dream for those who care about a more enlightened Malaysia.

Over the past two decades, Umno’s monopoly of state instruments and resources has expanded, and the party has become only more corrupt with various warlords fighting over their ‘rightful share’ of fortunes. Forming a single party together with others would only mean less spoils to be gained or, as the Chinese saying goes, too little gruel for too many monks.

It is not that Umno had not attempted some sort of reform. After the disastrous electoral performace in May 1969, Abdul Razak Hussein enlarged the Alliance by successfully enticing other parties to form a ‘coalition government’, including the then-fresh and confident Gerakan and even PAS.

While the coalition was rebranded to make itself more relevant to the vastly altered political realities at the time, its ethos remained unchanged - race and power.

While it did seem that all ethnic groups were well-represented both in parliament and in government in the decades that followed, only a fool would pretend it was a coalition founded on an equal footing.

Not only were non-Malay parties given a token presence in cabinet, Umno also embarked on an ambitious project of subjecting the entire state to its control. Again, no-one has done more damage than Mahathir Mohamad who - in haste to privatise and corporatise the country in order to benefit him and his own cronies - has ripped our public institutions nearly to pieces.

Ensuring Umno remains at the top

With this bit of history in mind, Malaysians must understand any idea of a single political party as mooted by Umno cannot be altruistic, for it is only meant to ensure the ultra Malay party remains at the top, while its dying coalition partners such as MCA and Gerakan are given a new lease of life.

Najib Abdul Razak, being a minority prime minister, is indeed desperate to save himself and his cronies by taking a leaf ouf of his father's book. To me, it will eventually amount to nothing more than yet another rebranding exercise.

A new BN - be it 1Malaysia Party or otherwise - is just a red herring. A bold and sincere leader would not choose to put the cart before the horse because what really is in dire need of reform is not BN, but Malaysia as a country.

In other words, Najib should spell out a bold blueprint of national reform that would encompass all the public institutions, ranging from the judiciary, the MACC, the police force, parliament, the civil service as a whole, the press and media to the unshamedly partisan Election Commission.

In short, a restoration of public confidence in government integrity cannot begin with reforming BN, for whoever that fails to resist the lure of fame and is sucked into the corrupt system only ends up a mouthpiece for the powers-that-be in no time, and no-one has exemplified this scenario more quickly and aptly than Paul Low Seng Kuan, the former president of Transparency International-Malaysia.

JOSH HONG studied politics at London Metropolitan University and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. A keen watcher of domestic and international politics, he longs for a day when Malaysians will learn and master the art of self-mockery, and enjoy life to the full in spite of politicians.