Umno at the crossroads

The Sun

theSun: In 2004 there was talk you were going to contest for the deputy Umno Youth chief's post. But you didn't and so gave a free ride to Khairy Jamaluddin. But now you are going after the number one post in the youth wing in a race that involves Khairy and others. Seeing how critical you have been of the party leadership, I suppose it is only to be expected. But why didn't you in 2004?

Mukhriz: Actually, I never intended to. I was brought in by Youth chief Datuk Hishammuddin Hussein. So it was only proper that I asked his permission to participate in the contest - but only for the executive councillor's post. Just for the exco position. It was only later that word got around that I was going for number two.
It all started in Kubang Pasu, my father's division for a long time. I was contesting for the ketua pemuda in Kubang Pasu. Despite me having the highest nomination, yet during the meeting itself they nominated me for the national deputy youth chief post. When that happened I felt that something was already not right because I did not offer myself for that position and I felt like this was sort of a consolation because basically I was going to lose in the race for the division youth chief position. So to sort of console me, they nominated me for the national position. It was just a nomination, it doesn't mean anything. And sure enough I lost the Kubang Pasu youth chief post. But at the same time I received calls asking whether I was contesting for the national deputy youth chief post. At that time there was talk Datuk Norza Zakaria was going to contest also but eventually he withdrew. By that time I received about five nominations which was nothing. I actually made a press statement saying that my intention was only to be an exco member. I never offered myself for the national deputy youth chief post.
So when people asked why I didn't go for it, I said when initially your intention was to only to perform sembahyang sunat how can you suddenly change to sembahyang zohor.

Of course, generally, people reported that you withdrew. Anyway that raised your profile a bit. But what gave you much prominence was when you said that the speech by the Umno president, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, at the opening of the 2006 assembly had nothing of significance, it was the same as the previous years. People, especially Umno members, sat up. Some castigated you. Why did you do it? It was not the Umno culture to say something like that but you seemed to buck the trend. Even Barisan Nasional component party leaders say only the nicest things.

Let's put it this way. I was a Kubang Pasu branch member. I attend all sorts of meetings including those with ketuas kampung and the villagers. These are grassroots members and supporters; mostly fishermen and farmers. They had a lot of grievances, some are simple requests like lighting for the villages, better roads and water supply, etc. These are grassroots issues.
The branch chiefs, the branch wanita and youth heads will often speak up. They will touch on various issues especially Malay economy, how they feel that it is not so easy to earn a decent living and times are tough and they need championing by Umno to get the government to look into this matter seriously. So I believed that if that happened in Kubang Pasu, it probably happened in other divisions as well. Normally, there will be about two months gap from the division to the Umno General Assembly.

So you would expect that some of the issues from the divisions will be brought up at the general assembly.

Yes, you see the highest authority in Umno is not the supreme council but the general assembly. Thus, there are such high hopes that Umno will address all these grassroots issues. That is one part of the general assembly, the voice of the grassroots.
The second part is the president's policy speech. It by definition means that the president will spell out the policies of the party for the next three years, or five years or even ten years. So this is what we take home with us. The policy speech is such an important speech. In fact, I had asked my father and he said that the president's address to the Umno general assembly is the most important speech that year - even when compared to other speeches made by the prime minister or even the budget speech. My father took a lot of time preparing that speech.

I suppose for your father it was more difficult preparing that speech than when speaking in response to the debates on the last day of the assembly.

I'm sure. During the three days of debates, he took notes. His policy speech and closing speech were very different in terms of content and style because the policy speech was written where he had given it a lot of thought and he would formulate what he wants to say. But then he has three days to respond to comments from the debates, so the closing speech is more impromptu. And in terms of style he was not reading but more like responding.
I have seen my father draft the speech and I think he went through it about 15 to 16 times before he was happy with it. And even as he walked to the rostrum he would be thinking about it and sometimes ad lib some little details even as he was reading the speech. It was something worthwhile for the members to take home.
So what you are saying is that members came with high expectations of taking home something to think about?

Yes. I had a very high expectation of the president's policy speech in 2006. Maybe I became a little more critical after I was made to understand what Umno politics was really all about especially after my father lost in his bid to be a delegate to the assembly. So I was not in a mood to be patient. And I listened carefully and critically to Pak Lah's speech. And when in my comments I said it was like the one made the previous year, I was not wrong because he actually said in his speech that he was going to repeat stuff from the previous year.

So by daring to be different you were actually stating the obvious?

When I made those comments I was also not representing Pemuda, I was wearing a bright red baju Melayu sitting with the Kubang Pasu division delegates right at the back.
When I walked down after the speech, I saw all the BN leaders being interviewed by the press and I almost sensed what they said without actually hearing them. I knew all of them supported the speech saying that it was great. So I thought what's wrong with being the only one out of the many with a contrary view. I am not even the balancing factor with the 20 others. So I thought why not, I was sure there were people there who perhaps felt the same way. I needed to show that at least there is someone who doesn't support blindly all the time. So when the reporters approached me for my comments, many of them were taken aback. I remember one asked me, "Are you sure you want to say that?" and I said, "Yes, why?" And the TV reporter's hand was literally shaking and after I had spoken, he said, "You do know that we cannot air that ..." and I said, "that's up to you; I've said what I wanted to say."

Some people later commented that what you did was good in a way. They said what you had done was to make people listen critically to the president's speech and not to take things for granted.

I felt very disappointed as a delegate, that the topmost leader in the party, took acceptance of the president's policy speech for granted. As I said just now, we had branch meetings and there are over 10,000 branches all over the country, and we took our meetings seriously. And, therefore, to deliver a speech that has no bearing at all to what people felt on the ground - and they have come from all over the country to PWTC to listen to this - is, to put it mildly, unfair.
It was like any other speech, I mean anyone could have drafted it and you could just read it. We didn't have anything to take home. It was not a speech that helped us understand the issues or solved our problems or something that could inspire us. So I was deeply disappointed.

You know when you talk about branches they are actually important grassroots units or cells. Don't you get the feeling that if they are not taken care of or if their complaints go unheeded, they can actually disappear?

It is already happening.

You have suggested that to prevent this, the branches must be made to feel relevant and important. One way of doing it is to allow the branches to state who they want to lead them at the national level. You explained that it is sort of a demonstration that they too are relevant.

Yes, I did suggest that. It would also make it worthwhile for branch members to attend their branch meetings. Otherwise they may feel irrelevant. When branch members feel this way, they may not even feel the need to attend meetings. They may feel that they have other things to attend to instead of attending a branch meeting where their voices are not heard.

While on the subject of money politics, I don't know whether you are aware that many people have said that the 2004 election was the most expensive election where the most amount of money was spent in buying votes. But there is already a feeling that the 2008 Umno election is going to be much bigger in terms of money spent to be elected.

Which is ironic ... 2004 and 2008 are like two different worlds. We were very dominant in 2004 and in 2008 we're literally limping. We lost five states and dominance in the Federal Territory. Despite that, some people in the party still indulge in that kind of arrogance of the pre-March 8 general election days. Especially those fighting for positions in the Umno elections. Why? Is this because they are very eager to take up positions in Umno to defend the party and defend BN so that we can win the next general election? I think not! I think they want positions in the party so that they can win government contracts, government positions, favours.

So you think this Umno elections is going to be like other Umno elections? No change despite what happened on March 8?

Not quite. I think this Umno election is going be a defining one. It doesn't matter who gets elected. But if the general public especially the Malays and those Malays in the party see that the party hasn't changed despite March 8, and that we are still indulging in all kinds of nonsense like money politics, for instance, then there will be a wholesale defection from Umno and the BN. You can be sure this Umno election is going to be closely watched.

You know Datuk, after you made that statement criticising the president's speech in 2006 and then subsequently you were known to be very critical, and many people were surprised that you were nominated to contest in the general election. How do you see this?

Well, there was already some sort of tradition in Umno that the former Umno president's children, at least one of them be given a chance to be a member of Parliament. I've been active in Umno so they thought that it was an opportune time to get tested in the real political world and not just party politics. Still, I was surprised when Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid informed me by phone that I was being fielded - and in Jerlun. I was shaken a bit. The only person I knew in Jerlun was the ketua pemuda and the division chief Datuk Rahman Ariffin, whose place I was taking over. So you can imagine what was going on in my head.

There are people who said that after being chosen to contest you should at least be grateful. But immediately after winning Jerlun you called for the PM to step down. How do you explain what you did?

I am one who believes in reality as a virtue. But there are other virtues also, one of it is to speak up when there is something that needs to be rectified, as long as your heart is in the right place and you are sincere about it. Another virtue is hard work, to be of service to the people. Honesty is another one. You can't just look at one. OK, so we won in Jerlun but we lost the whole of Kedah and this has never happened. Yes, everyone said that PAS was making huge in-roads but no one said that we were going to lose the whole state. I was sad and then to learn that Penang, Perak and Selangor had also gone to the Opposition. I felt that the whole world around me was crumbling.
When you talk about everyone, you mean Umno members?

Umno members and Malays in general. That we were almost obliterated. What's going on? Where was the leadership? That's when I thought, hey, look, in other countries if this happened, immediately the PM would take full responsibility and step down. How else to look at it. You took the credit for winning by a landslide in 2004, but you don't want to take credit for the losses. That was what prompted me to say what other people in the party refused to say openly.
My first statement was in Seberang Jaya. I had to do it as statements by our leaders sounded so arrogant. "Ah, we still won!", "We're only eight seats away from the two-thirds majority", "BN is still in power"; "the people are still with us!" You know, this is not the time to say that. This is the time to say that "we hear you", "we understand the message and the signal that you have sent" which means that we need to rectify from within and it was a time to be humble about the losses. I mean you can't say that we have won even if we won a simple majority in Parliament, we have never lost 2/3 other than in 1969, and and you remember what happened then. This is 2008 and this is the biggest setback ever.

What made you decide to contest for the Umno Youth chief's post?

To win back the young people to the party. The general election and the Permatang Pauh by-election showed that many young people are no longer with us. Worse still, the words they use to describe us. Words like meluat (fed up) and menyampah (rubbish) to basically say that they are sick and tired. But more recently the words they used were benci (hate) and jijik (messy). It somehow changed from the past two months. It got from bad to worse. So, definitely something needs to be done about this. I still feel that Umno is the backdrop or the medium for change. But the way we have been going about doing things, it's obvious now that it did not make a single impact in the people especially the young. We were doing things like parachuting in the Antarctica, swimming across the Malacca Strait, I mean that is nice for a Malaysia Boleh type of people but how does it solve problems? It is sort of a feel good activity but for a guy who is facing difficulty in borrowing RM10,000 from the bank, how do you solve this problem? Factory workers with housing problems, facing urban issues and young people all on their own. And we are not even doing anything about it. It is supposed to be our duty but we did not do much. And then we act surprised when people reject us come election and by-election time.

You didn't actually speak up before 2006. Why?

I did. But before that I spoke up only during the Youth exco meetings.

Coming back to March 8 and the perception that Umno has not learnt from the near rout of the last general election. You think so?

I won't deny that that is the impression people get. Whether we are actually arrogant or not is another issue but in politics it is the impression that counts. For instance, the statements we make and coming from the PM himself when the general election results were announced.
I recall before the elections Bersih wanted to hold a mass demonstration. Pak Lah used strong words to warn them. He said at the Umno general assembly "Saya pantang dicabar!" And the next day they went ahead with it. It was widely reported. Perhaps that was not the right thing to say. Another thing before the elections, Pak Lah also said, "If you have any grievances why do you bring them out to the street? Why don't you express your grievances at the ballot box." And that was a challenge. And that was exactly what they did. This is why people have the perception that we are arrogant.

One would have expected that Umno and the other coalition members would rally after the general election to make the necessary changes for the BN to be strong and formidable again. Has Pak Lah made the rallying call? Can he provide the leadership for the BN to rebuild itself?

No. No way. Absolutely not. This will never happen as long as he is still the party president. I think he is the core problem now.

Why core problem?

You know, weak leadership, bad decision making, flip-flopping. What we have now is a crisis of confidence - crisis of trust in the government. It has come to the point now people don't even believe what you say. What more when the transition of power is being questioned, almost openly. And when one minister says something and another minister counters it, it is a reflection of a lack of leadership.
Because of your criticism of the party leadership, there are some Umno members who think that you would be one of those who would cross over to Pakatan Rakyat?

True. I am probably the most vocal in criticising my own government despite being a BN MP but you don't see me jumping over to the other side. I defend my right to speak up but don't ever anyone question my loyalty to the party. Why is it that when we have criticism from within the party we are accused of being the enemy within - in Malay there are couple of sayings like Musuh dalam selimut, gunting dalam lipatan, duri dalam daging and api dalam sekam which have been used against me. Why can't we be critical and still remain loyal to the party? It is not that we don't love the party. I think we should change that.

More people are speaking up in the party. Of course, you would say that this is good for further democratisation of the party.

Yes, yes, definitely. Some may say that during my father's time people were not speaking up. But I may be wrong, I think that when things are good and fine there may not be a need to speak up much but when things are not right, that is when people are driven to speak up because they want to right the wrong. So if we keep on saying that we have to adhere to instructions from the top then why are we here? And nothing is worse than the person himself literally ordering everyone to keep him in power. You call it a transition plan but then only one plan is considered. As such, it is not a plan, it is an instruction, a command.
How much of what you are, think and say is a reflection of what your father is?

Generally, it is similar but I might go about doing things in a different way. I believe in what he says.

What do you think are your chances of coming up on top in this race? There are many formidable aspirants.
I won't say fair to good; I won't say excellent because as you say money politics is still around. But I am waiting to see how it is going to impact on this race, whether our youth will reject it or succumb to it. If they go against their conscience, I would be in trouble. But I am cautiously optimistic that in the end some good sense will prevail.
And I hope they see that for us to restore confidence and to build up Umno Youth to the point that young people will come to support us again. I hope that I would be the one to be able to do it. I used the theme for the campaign "Dare to change". It can be interpreted as change at the top but it also means change from within. Let's just go by the virtues of honesty, responsibility, service to the people and good time keeping. Because if we don't do that people won't see us as virtuous then how are we to comment on others. Also I said that even if I win, I prefer not to have a government post.
Why?

The position of the Umno Youth chief is a full-time job. You don't have time to be running a government agency or ministry. There were some people who said, "You were very silly to say that, because how else are you going to move if you don't have the support from a ministry?" I asked what does that mean? Does it mean that you actually use government funds for our own politics. This is not what I want. This is probably why we lost. I want to stop that. Before, it was not the norm for an Umno Youth chief to be given a government post. It's so strange that we are all stumbling over each other vying for posts. There is so much to be done. It is not like there is a pot of gold at the end of the road. I definitely don't see it that way.
What I see are challenges and tribulation and a lot of hard work. We have to work really hard if we want to regain the confidence of young Malaysians.

What about Ketuanan Melayu? Will you be championing Ketuanan Melayu?

I think the term has been misconstrued because in English, it means supremacy, a very intimidating word. The way I see it is in the context of bumiputra being the majority. Even the United Nations acknowledges any government policies should benefit the majority whilst not denying the rights of the minority.
In this case, in Malaysia, the minorities are not denied their rights whether in the economic, political and social spheres. There is religious freedom. I believe the forces that are trying to keep us together are far stronger than the forces that are trying to break us apart. Let's focus on common issues like nation building.