After a good start it looks like the Save Malaysia Movement (SMM) has gone to sleep. In fact many people are worried and have expressed to me their concern that SMM has regressed, with the Internet media coming up with reports that there are conflicts and differences within the leadership of the movement.

If you ask a gambling man whether he thinks SMM can be successful or will fail, I am sure that the great majority will put their money on the latter.

And if SMM were listed in the stock exchange, we can be sure that it would have dropped well below its par value. Some cynics will say that it is probably in receivership!

How can SMM be saved is a question over which the campaign’s leaders are probably having sleepless nights! As someone who has been advocating for major institutional reforms in the country and who has long supported the opposition cause so that we have a strong check and balance system to prevent abuses and ensure our rights and freedoms are not diminished, I have a special interest in seeing that SMM not going under and dying a premature death.

So here are my proposals to save SMM.

1. Mobilise financial and human resources

If you go into battle without adequate financial and human resources, then you are asking for trouble and will most likely be defeated. Of the two prerequisites, I consider financial resources more important than human.

Without financial resources any campaign - whether it is to save your local park or an endangered species - will go nowhere. You will lack not only funds to pay for transport and campaign materials but also the volunteers and activists you need to help spread the message of your campaign.

The SMM wants to collect 1 million signatures for a start? Now how can it do this without financial and human resources? Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has put it crudely but in a sense he is right. Cash is King. But that cash must be used for good and moral purposes. Not dirty ones or allegedly simply to fatten and enrich the BN representatives or Umno divisional chiefs and supreme council members.

Earlier, the SMM’s prime mover, Zaid Ibrahim, announced that he was going to go to the Malaysian public and use crowd-funding to raise the finance for the movement. He also said that he was not going to look for assistance from tycoons.

Come on, Zaid! You are living in dreamland if you think the movement can raise sufficient funds without support from the business community and the well-to-do.

The Malaysian public will rightly think, “Why the hell should I be asked to donate while Daim Zainuddin who is a multi-billionaire is not prepared to put his money where his mouth is.”

Malaysians also know that Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s two sons, Mokhzani and Mirzan, are allegedly billionaires. Surely they can drop a couple of million ringgit easily to support their old man. I do not know about the Malay or Muslim community but within the Chinese community, this is a very good way of showing respect for one’s elders!

Besides his children, Dr Mahathir also allegedly has the most extensive network of business cronies and friends available. Well, maybe today, the prime minister allegedly has a bigger network.

But more than a few Malaysians have allegedly made their millions and billions simply by working with or through Dr Mahathir when he was prime minister. Unfortunately I am not one of them. But I personally know of several who have!

Don’t tell me that he will not be able to get them to contribute a few millions each to the SMM cause? I am sure that they owe him plenty to be in the cushy super-rich position that they are now in.

I do not need to provide names but I am sure that the SMM group of leaders know who these potential wealthy donors are and how they can donate to the SMM fund in a way which is legal and protects them from any retribution from the government or authorities. After all, some or most of the super rich are allegedly already providing funds to the BN in one way or another. Simply get them to siphon some of the money towards SMM!

2. Membership drive and grassroots strategy

One of the reasons why SMM has not taken off is that it is seen as an elite grouping. Actually, it is not only seen but it is also one in reality. For now of course you need faces such as Dr Mahathir, Muhyiddin Yassin, Lim Kit Siang and Azmin Ali. But for the movement to succeed it needs to build up its middle level and grassroots campaigners and activists.

This can be done when the campaign is collecting the signatures. Together with the one million signature drive, SMM should have a membership drive and thus kill two birds with one stone.

Membership forms should be provided in all the languages. Imagine a multiracial movement that has one million members coming from rural and urban communities. That movement would be unprecedented. It would also have greater impact than driving a lorry with one million signatures to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s palace.

Dr Mahathir has been stressing the importance of the signature campaign but I have to disagree with him. I see the signature drive as simply one shot in a long battle. It has made the headlines but it is a bit gimmicky. As we have seen with lots of other signature drives in the country and elsewhere, it may not have much impact. What will make a difference is to ensure that SMM is not a one-trick pony. This is where the membership drive is so important.

Let me emphasise again - a one-million-member Save Malaysia Movement has the potential to change the political direction of the country even more than the present political parties!

I have provided just two proposals here for the movement to consider if it wants to forge ahead. I have a few more. Other members of the public and supporters will have similar proposals to make.

The way I see it, if the SMM fails to take off, the leaders of the movement should only blame themselves and not the government!

KOON YEW YIN, a retired chartered engineer, is a philanthropist.