Ali Rustam and UMNO Elections

This is my first attempt of mobile blogging. Not too bad. The posting will be short and brief, I hope.

I am going to be frank about the latest decision by the UMNO disciplinary board to bar the Malacca CM from contesting. With or without the decision, to me, Ali has no credibility at all to even think of contesting the Deputy President post. I agree with what Nazri Aziz said that based on technical factors alone Ali is incapable to be DPM. To begin with, he's not even an MP. And secondly, he's already a CM, for f sake.

In his recent interview with The Star, Ali said that he is proud to be referred to as Pak Lah's man. What does this means? Voting Ali as Deputy simply means - No Reform. And worse, voting Ali means UMNO stand to lose big in next general election. (Najib could be a possible factor here too but that's another story for another day). I strongly hope that the board will reject his application, if he ever decide to appeal.

Ali should look at himself in the mirror. Throughout history no sitting UMNO MB or CM has ever contested the Deputy post. Besides, a Deputy President of UMNO is traditionally or by default the Deputy Prime Minister! And being a DPM is a full time job. I don't believe that one can juggle himself as a Chief Minister, albeit a small state, and a DPM. I am not denying his achievements as the Malacca CM. But I believe the federal level is a different ball game, which he has a very limited experience. I remember reading in the papers last year whereby Ali was quoted as saying something like, the Deputy post is vacant therefore I feel I should offer myself. I seriously think that any candidate who uses this stupid line for contesting any party position should be rejected. Yes, isn't it obvious the post is vacant? There is no need to emphasize on it. What people want to know is your ideas and contributions.
Obama fought for the presidency because he wanted 'change' and not because Bush's term is coming to an end.

Ali, though he has a track record as the chief of Belia 4B and other youth organisation, he no longer or perhaps never represented the voice of the younger generation. Furthermore, being an UMNO leader from Malacca, where UMNO won all seats contested, I doubt he could understand the general misperception and ill feelings of the rakyat against UMNO or the government. Being a Pak Lah man, he simply does not have the ideas and capabilities needed to help Najib in pursuing reforms in UMNO. This is no longer the era where the rakyat could be easily fed with janji-janji pembangunan. UMNO must change. Old rhetorics is becoming obsolete already. UMNO must step up the pressure and always be on the offensive. To keep on being defensive to the opposition only shows that you are weak. I can only see business as usual for UMNO if Ali becomes the Deputy. To all Ali supporters, I think you can at least do good to him by letting him just focus on Malacca. Let Najib and his new team focus on Malaysia.

I don't have time to talk about Mat Taib here. Muhyiddin Yassin is the only choice. I just don't understand with some people in UMNO. Party elections is about electing capable leaders to lead the party and government and it's not a beauty contest where one is judged by his looks or whether he smile at you or not.

May the best man win.

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