Race and Religion no longer unites the Malays against the others as it has done in the past.

Race and Religion are the reason why UMNO has been in government for the past five decades! Race and Religion is also the divide between the Malays and the others. Race and Religion will make or break UMNO in the coming 13^th general election.

What is new today is that Race and Religion no longer unites the Malays against the others as it has done in the past. The solidarity between the Malays have all but disappeared because increasingly over the years UMNO that had once been the force of cohesion amongst the Malays begun living for itself in isolation from the Malays. The UMNO that once spoke and acted on behalf of the Malays has since lost its ethical and moral compass. 

This week we see UMNO embroil in receiving a RM40 million political donation – for UMNO not for the Malays.

We see Sharizat, an UMNO Minister having to resign because of NFC where her Family, not the Malays, profited from the UMNO led government beef project to the tune of RM250 million to buy condos not cows!     

We have as our representative in Washington a ‘Raba Raba’ ex Minister who is a Malay – surely at best a questionable appointment given his past sexual transgression at worst it tells us that as far as UMNO is concern, UMNO Muslims dance to a different drums than that of the Malay Muslims.

Today we have pro UMNO supporters showing their behind to those who choose to think differently from them. We have UMNO youth peeing on the posters of PAS. We have UMNO youth intimidating Karpal Singh in front of Parliament. We have UMNO supporters physically intimidating Malays from the opposition. This new morally impaired culture has emerged because UMNO politics takes precedence over a culture where respect and decent behavior towards other Malay, especially elders and women, are no longer tenable for UMNO because their political agenda would be compromised if these opponents to UMNO were not eliminated. So political expediency overcomes all other consideration.

The Malays are no longer together in their support for UMNO and opposition to ‘others’. Today the Malays constitute a new division within themselves with its own convictions, its own issues, and its own political inclinations and of course its own nuances and religious interpretations within Islam. For UMNO the Malays are now an un-organisable mass.

UMNO cannot bridge the gap between these divisions nor can Pakatan Rakyat. Najib is too wrapped up in trying to ensure his own political survival. Muhyiddin too engrossed in plotting his own legacy after Najib to the point of forgetting that UMNO has to win at the 13^th general election before any legacy of his can happen. Mahathir continues to spook UMNO with perceived attacks from within in which only he could save UMNO from. And the UMNO Warlords are more concern about maintaining their Bank Balance rather then to further ‘invest’ in projects within UMNO that has no hope of returns.

All this is happening even as the Malays are in congress amongst themselves as to who would best champion their cause after UMNO!

I say that it is time we Malays stop blaming UMNO for our present malaise for surely by now we know that we Malays have not been able to make UMNO understand that we will not give them our votes if they remain the UMNO that we know today – corrupt, decadent and without any regard for anyone else but themselves.

Now the Malays have choices. An alliance with DAP, PAS or PKR – Pakatan Rakyat or do we stay with UMNO in the hope that the right kind of leadership will emerge from within UMNO?

All that is certain about UMNO today is that a culture devoid of moral and ethical considerations exists. For now there are still enough Malays enamored with the thoughts of an UMNO past that will still give their votes to an UMNO present. And there are enough Malays that will insists upon change –be it with DAP, PAS or PKR. The question now is whether the Malays divided will have enough relevance in the political structure that will surely come after the 13^th general elections. 

It will all depend on whether a leader emerge within our ranks that can overcome these inherent racial and religious divisions amongst us for the greater and common good of our people. None can be seen on the political horizons for the moment. And I honestly believe that none will emerge in the foreseeable future because these divisions are ours to deal with. We, not our leaders will make our future. We, not our leaders will decide if we should continue to live as brothers and sisters or do we go back to the killing fields to settle our difference. Do we celebrate our diversity or do we accentuate the negative not the positive?

The time to decide is near. Let us take for ourselves leaders that will do our bidding. Leaders that will serve our interests not theirs. Leaders who are decent and understand that a RM40 million political donation is not kosher. Leaders who understand that when a underling tries to position himself to be Menteri Bersar of Selangor he must be reprimanded and made to understand that Pakatan Rakya, not him, will decide that matter. That does not leave us with much does it?

But that is all we have got for now!