Politics, like any other system of belief, requires a codified structure and hierarchy to smoothen the journey forward. This is similar to religions which require for the adherence to god or/and its messenger while companies placing authoritative power in the hands of the chairperson or CEO/board.

This then begs the question, when does allegiance become a liability which warrants for disobedience or a coordinated rebellion? On a comparative level, is blind allegiance a necessary evil in politics?

Political parties owe a duty to the country first above anything else. The epicentre of power lies in the hands of the people, not in the hand of members of a specific political party. YB Khairy Jamaluddin, the Youth chief of Umno, noted this in his speech at the Umno general assembly that over reliance on the purported 3-million Umno members would be insufficient to win the general election as Malaysia is not only governed by Umno members.

We hear the same rhetoric coming from opposition MPs like YB Rafizi Ramli and YB Lim Kit Siang. When a political party acts against the interest of the nation, it becomes the members’ moral duty to speak up on behalf of the nation. A party is a mere subset of the nation. There can be a Malaysia without these respective political parties, but there can never be an ‘Umno’ without Malaysia.

It baffles me to see blind allegiance especially among Umno members. When corruption becomes a party norm which is diametrically opposed to the overall functioning of the state, there are still ardent party supporters who defend the party and their leaders. There are even those who go as far as labelling their president as “god-sent” and “Pahlawan Bugis”.

This blind allegiance is a cancerous tumor which slowly kills the party due to the growing tolerance to intolerable issues like corruption and bad governance. When party members accept corrupt practices for the ‘party’s cause’, this sets a damaging precedent for the future of the party. It effectively sends a signal to the future generation that ‘the ends justify the means’, even if it comes at the expense of the country.

When there are those from the inside who would like to challenge the corrupt power structures, it becomes implausible as these insiders will have to go against the norm set by the precedent, while overcoming the army of loyalists who will bark whenever an instruction is given.