I was raised in a pro-Umno household for the first 18 years of my life. Political discussions were our bread and butter. I distinctly remember all the heated arguments I used to have with my family members regarding Malaysian politics. The outcome of the discussion is often the same. Me being declared wrong while being schooled by those who are older than me.

I wasn’t arguing in support of the opposition nor was I arguing for the complete condemnation of Umno. I was merely pointing out the fallibilities of some of Umno’s policies. The very same fallibilities which exist in all political parties.

It’s uncontroversial to claim that political parties aren’t perfect, however blind partisanship clouds a person’s judgment which imprisons the truth. I am against all forms of blind partisanship or arbitrary labelling which unjustly homogenises those who are affected.

This is the basis of my opposition to the ‘Asal Bukan Umno’ (ABU) movement. It homogenises everyone within the party without looking at character and content, while deflecting attention and scrutiny from the opposition party. It would be hypocritical of me to contest against my family’s pro-Umno claims but to not do the same here. No party should be free from public scrutiny. No party should treat us as their safe deposits.

The ‘Asal Bukan Umno’ movement was launched by the now defunct Pakatan Rakyat (supporters) in 2011 in preparation for the 13th general election. Its very purpose was to delegitimise Umno’s rule by enhancing the deep-seated hatred of the rakyat to the party. It proposed that the rakyat vote in any candidate regardless of their qualifications as long as they are not from Umno.

This campaign promotes lazy politics. It ferments an environment which pushes voters to vote based on socially constructed sentiments in contrast to assessing the merits of their respective candidates. It places an unfair labelling on all Umno members by painting them with the same brush. The moderates with the extremists, and vice versa.

The fact that the campaign equated YB Khairy Jamaluddin with the likes of Perkasa’s Zulkifli Noordin is indicative of this. Let’s be honest, even if some of you might dislike YB Khairy, he is objectively better than Zulkifli Noordin (unless you’re using a racist metric). It’s therefore morally wrong to conflate everyone into the same category.

Umno is a party with more than 3 million members. If all of them are racists, we wouldn’t be having this peaceful discourse, instead we would be engulfed in racial riots. We need to educate Malaysians to be informed voters, not to zombify their vote through this campaign.

This campaign effectively means that someone as qualified and moderate as MB Khaled Nordin will be sidelined even if the competitor is a bigoted sexist who politicises islam. The fact that this campaign once insulated PAS from criticisms is a signal of its failure today

Weakening moderate voices

Furthermore, this campaign weakens the moderate voices within the party. Saifuddin Abdullah, the former Umno member who’s popularised by his moderate stance on national issues, was arguably one of the movement’s casualties. In an interview with Malaysiakini , Saifuddin said, “Remember ABU? I pun kena la (I too was affected)”. He then proceeded to comment on how Pakatan can win the next election by riding on the anti-Umno sentiment.

Since the movement homogenises everyone, the moderates were not spared. What’s worse is that the campaign perversely incentivised members to remain far right as there’s no reward moving to the middle anyway. Why move to the middle when you’re forever labelled to be a racist? It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Moving to the middle in Umno politics is already difficult, what more if that action is not rewarded by the rakyat.

When Saifuddin ( photo ) lost his Temerloh seat, it became much easier for his Umno colleagues to slowly strip power away from him within the party. Alternatively, if he had been primarily judged for who he was and not for the party which he was affiliated to, he could have potentially won the Temerloh seat and climbed up the Umno ranks with the reformist agenda which envelopes him.

Do not get me wrong, I am not stating that a member shouldn’t be judged for the party which he subscribes to, instead I’m arguing that this should not be the sole criteria used in while assessing him/her.

Moreover, this campaign often acts as a shield to deflect legitimate criticisms foisted on the opposition party. It’s much easier to be complacent when you’re cocooned in anti-Umno sentiments. When you are surrounded by a wall of stereotypes and homogenisations which deflect attention from you to the party afflicted by this virus.

Notice how the ‘go-to’ response of opposition members who are embroiled in scandals is to point out the ongoing scandal of the other party while riding the wave of hatred. When YB Nurul Izzah Anwar was caught fraternising with Jacel Kiram, the ‘princess of Sulu’ who endorsed her father’s incursions into Sabah, the first defence put up was to deflect attention by pointing to another error made by the Malaysian government. This acts as a distraction to the issue at hand.

In order for Malaysia to politically mature, we need to start addressing the failures of all political parties, even ones which do not walk the corridors of power. If we don’t, we’ll be using the very same broken political cycle. The cycle which will be recycled once a new party sits on the throne.

Malaysians deserve better. Political consciousness is growing by the day. It is therefore critical that we individually assess the candidates that are brought before us. I am not advocating for a pro-Umno stance, instead I implore that we start to comprehensively assess the candidates that are presented before us. Let’s us not fall into the trap of blind partisanship. We live in a world where no political parties are perfect. In this imperfection, it is crucial that we remedy the structural problems which have led us to where we are today.

I believe that this is one of it. If we do not break the cycle now, it will be reused in the future at our detriment by a different political party. If we do not break the cycle now, we will soon be one of the casualties. Let’s break it!

SYED SADDIQ SYED ABDUL RAHMAN is a part-time lecturer at Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) Malaysia and is Asia’s best debater, winning the United Asia Debate Championship in May 2015.