COMMENT | The occasion of the recent launch of the book, Anatomy of an electoral tsunami written together with Terence Netto and S Thayaparan provided questions and issues which should be of interest to a larger public.

According to the guest of honour, Tawfik Ismail, the defeat of Umno in GE 14 was because the party had become a stagnant pond of water breeding only bottom feeder fish.

In his speech which he subsequently elaborated to the media, he described Umno as having no inlet and no outlet.

“In such a pond, fish which are of beauty cannot survive, all that can survive are the bottom feeders.”

He argued that Umno had died in 1988 during the political crisis when the High Court ruled that Umno was an illegal party.

“It (Umno) had actually died in 1988, it was killed off. So… we need to keep that in mind when we talk about why the tsunami changed things,” he said in reference to the recent election.

Since then he noted that by voting in the old guard as leaders during the recent party elections, the same mentality was still at work.

“At the moment Umno is directionless. They don’t have any ideology or new ideas that attract young people. They are feeding on themselves. They are a self-supporting group.”

He said the party remained the same post GE14, was still filled with bottom feeders and [they] have not changed their approach to politics...