.jpg)
By Mihar Dias (C) Copyright January 2023
Not allowing the contest for posts of President and Deputy of UMNO is akin to thwarting, if not killing, democracy in the grand old party election to elect office bearers.
Khairy Jamaluddin said so. Taking to Instagram, Khairy hits out at UMNO leaders who call for the top two posts not to be contested in forthcoming party elections.
“Stop this madness. I think the president (Ahmad Zahid Hamidi) is a fighter who does not fear taking on challengers (for the Umno presidency)... Make room for contests. Don’t kill off democracy in Umno,” he said.
Almost 300 years ago Alexander Pope expressed a similar opinion. In his "Letter to Edward Blount" dated 27 August 1714, Alexander Pope said, "I find myself hoping a total end of all the unhappy divisions of mankind by party-spirit, which at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few."
We are not sure the circumstances that led to Pope's penning his views but where Khairy Jamaluddin is concerned 300 years later, he is faced by a group of gullible UMNO divisional leaders who have blinkers on, refusing to see the elephant in the room; yet they shout for the eradication of corruption and unfair practices.
Instead, they continue to support party leadership that has persistently performed miserably in the last four years.
The best way forward for the party as recommended by delegates is to clean the party of corrupted members or those involved in cases of corruption. But it is easier said than done. Zahid the president has cases coming up in court. So, it's hard for the party to say it is fighting to eradicate corruption while its own President is facing court battles over the menace. He is idolised by many grassroots leaders who refused to make changes.
These are many who in their madness forget that they are willing to sacrifice democratic principles for the benefits of the few. As for Khairy Jamaluddin and others who are thinking of running for the highest two posts in the party, we would suggest that it's "better to jump in the water and learn to swim than stand on the shore wondering" - Alexander Pope.
The sooner they do, the better it would be for the party because they'll be bringing in new blood into a party that is so fragmented and in dire need of new leadership in order to move the organisation forward for the many on the ground who have always looked up to UMNO's leadership.
For the 140 division heads, think again. Is it worth sacrificing principles of democracy that many on the ground expect you to uphold just for the benefit of a few?
Mihar Dias is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav.
Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
Newswav is solely an aggregation platform and hosts the content. The views expressed and content above including media (pictures, videos, etc) were provided by the author. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
