The cobweb of chaos and confusion that is being created by Umno power brokers and their supporters seemed to be symptomatic of the last tremblings of a dying institution. Many of them - whilst pointing fingers at either Dr. Mahathir or/and Pak Lah for the dismal performance of Umno during the last election - are also gleefully flashing about ‘sin files’ on their opponents. The idea is to disqualify others as they jostle for better positions in the imminent shake-up of the party.

Many claim to have two files on each of their key opponents -one on their rotten personal lives and the other on how they have abused their positions and embezzled public funds. Others claim to have three files with the third on either the son-in-law or the wife.

Those with no files to flash around have began to beat the drum to stir up Malay racist sentiment: ‘Malay dominance under siege’ is their call for Malay unity. Others are seen to be shadowing Tun Mahathir and helping in the countdown of Pak Lah's declining resilience to growing demands from party members for him to ‘transition away’.

The more intelligent ones accept the reality that the seed of decay and destruction was sowed during Dr Mahathir's premiership and has grown in severity and magnitude under Pak Lah's leadership. Pak Lah's main weakness has been attributed to his lack of drive and his timidity.

Consensus seems to have been reached unofficially at the party supreme council level that ‘Pak Lah has to go’. The problem they had initially appeared to be more of timing and semantics rather than anything else. They diplomatically agreed to use the euphemism ‘transition of power to Najib’ to refer to Pak Lah's exit. It is also apparent that the expectation is that this process would happen within three months from now.

This would mean that the Umno’s tri-annual supreme council election scheduled to be held towards the end of the year would be epoch-making as it would determine the new generation of office bearers and leadership as Umno endevours to respond to the voting public's new expectations and aspirations.

The competition among aspiring Umno leaders would therefore be more intense than ever before. Many of them are expected to go for broke. This is true for the top two posts. Regardless of whether Pak Lah is going to contest or not, most of Najib's followers expect him to contest for the presidentship.

He would have to face not only Ku Li but at least another dark horse if sufficiently supported by Umno branches. The number two position would certainly be fiercely fought between Ali Rustam, Hishammuddin Hussein and possibly also by another dark horse, ubject to the same proviso. Other positions would be equally keenly contested if so permitted by Umno's undemocratic electoral system.

Umno now is therefore facing a very serious dilemma. If it liberalises its electoral rules, this may led to a free-for-all situation where any member could contest for any position in the party. This, though very democratic, has been perceived as something that can destabilise the party. However, leaving alone the rules would perpetuate money politics and nurture the creation of conspiring gangs that perpetuate crony capitalism.

At this crucial hour when Umno needs fresh blood to hep reinvent the party, the present electoral system locks out the much needed talent whilst at the same time locking in dinosaurs and tainted members.

In any event, the story of Umno is likely to end like a Greek tragedy where all the key characters would be killed for their sins or in order that the future would be better for the country.