Revisiting the 2006 UMNO General Assembly
Amri Baharuddin Shamsul
Amri Baharuddin Shamsul
14 Dec 2006
It was in mid-2006 when Mahathir fired his first salvo against Abdullah Badawi and his government, gaining front-page prominence in the widely circulating Malaysian daily, the New Straits Times. Since the paper is UMNO-controlled, Abdullah Badawi must have been aware of these criticisms and perhaps even gave the green-light for them to be published, in line with his "open-government" philosophy.
What shocked many within and without UMNO were not Mahathir's criticisms per se, but the vitriol and vehemence that accompanied them. Many ministers and the Barisan Nasional leaders responded by rallying around Abdullah.
Mahathir's unhappiness stemmed from the abandonment of the crooked bridge project, the future fate of the national car company that he inspired, Proton, of corruption in high places among UMNO members, but especially within Abdullah's family and over the general nature of affairs in Malaysia, which he described as a "police state".
With the UMNO General Assembly approaching and no indication that the Mahathir-Abdullah crisis would be resolved, Malaysia was bracing itself for open confrontation during the Assembly after Mahathir announced that he was attending too. Only a mild heart attack prevented him from doing so. Pleas from close friends and family to consider his national legacy against a concerted anti-Abdullah campaign also seem to have borne fruit, despite the ex-premier making it clear that his struggle would go on.
Abdullah dominated the stage at the UMNO General Assembly with his opening and closing speeches. For once, everyone present felt that he sounded authoritative and convincing. The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange also shared this new confidence, breaching the 1,000 mark for the first time since Abdullah became Prime Minister.
However, the overall mood and tenor of the debate during the General Assembly was decidedly negative, prompting a largely pessimistic reaction from the non-Malays, who opined the assembly was marked by too much chauvinistic drama epitomised by the image of the Malay dagger, or kris, and threats from some UMNO members to "run amok", if the social contract that has held Malaysia together since 1969 was fundamentally altered.
For the first time in Malaysia's history, the General Assembly was telecast live on ASTRO, the Malaysian cable channel, and UMNO TV on the web. Selected speeches were also telecast live on TV3, RTM1, NTV7, and TV9. It was estimated that around six million viewers watched this UMNO "reality show", including a large number of non-Malays.
Most UMNO representatives did not realise they were being watched by millions. The assembly proceeded as usual, complete with philosophical speeches, pantuns and dirty jokes. Hishammudin, the UMNO Youth leader, yet again, did not forget to bring his kris along and kissed it in public - prompting some commentators to ask when he planned to use it. The assembly was also peppered with chauvinistic comments and gender slurs, while some raised totally petty and irrelevant personal matters, such as the "unIslamic dress" of one minister's wife.
The overall impact of the assembly was not really understood until the final day of the meeting, when Abdullah Badawi, in his summing-up speech, told the UMNO delegates that their speeches and behaviour during the meeting were closely watched and scrutinised by the Malaysian public - both Malay and non-Malay.
It was quite clear when Abdullah spoke that he had received reports that there were negative reactions to some chauvinistic speeches and Hishamuddin's kris-waving histrionics. The Prime Minister then spent about 30 minutes trying to pacify the Malaysian non-Malay public, stressing that UMNO leaders were both leaders of the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional and all Malaysians. This effort was only partially successful it seems.
The first reaction emanated from the leaders of the Barisan Nasional constituent parties. They were clearly unhappy with what was said about them during the assembly and responded by publicly charging UMNO leaders of creating unnecessary ethnic tension in the country.
Then came an avalanche of public responses from different community leaders as well from the NGOs. Again, UMNO leaders were brunt of their attacks.
Suddenly, UMNO was under siege. Rather than raise a spirited defence of the party, to the surprise of many within the party, senior UMNO politicians warned some of the delegates who spoke during the general assembly that they could be charged in court under the Sedition Act of 1970 for making chauvinistic and ethnically-sensitive "public" speeches. "Public" simply because the General Assembly was telecast live. Needless to say, the 2006 General Assembly will probably be the first and last as far as live broadcast is concerned.
UMNO General Assemblies in the coming years are likely to take on a similar form if the assemblies of 2005 and 2006 are anything to go by. Abdullah, UMNO and their Barisan Nasional colleagues continue to be boxed in by the New Economic Policy (NEP) discourse, a debate that so far has not addressed a more basic issue that pertains to the Federal Constitution, in particular to Article 8 "on Equality" which "allows for 'special privileges' to the 'minority' (disabled, etc.), principally, as an exception" and Article 153 "on Special Privileges of the Natives".
Article 153 allows for "special privileges" for the majority, based on the historical agreement that it is a pre-condition to equality. This is supposed to help bumiputeras achieve economic parity with non-Malays. However, unlike in the NEP of 1970, no quantitative targets and no timetables were set in the 1957 Constitution.
Unless the Malaysian social contract, and by extension the constitution is "renegotiated" and Article 153 is made much clearer in terms of its objectives, quantitative targets and fixed time schedules, the New Economic Policy will be repackaged again and again, eventually living up to its more popular abbreviation, the Never Ending Policy. Only UMNO has the real power required to effect this renegotiation - until such a time, politics in Malaysia will simply be a rehash of issues previously raised.
Ultimately, UMNO has to rise above it all and consider what is good for Malaysia and UMNO, rather than just UMNO alone.
What they said and thereafter
The 2006 UMNO Annual General Assembly was the first ever to be telecast live. Hasnoor Sidang Hussein was among the delegates permitted to address the assembly, and like all others, his speech was carried live.
In the course of his remarks, Hasnoor stated that non-Malay citizens needed to be grateful for having been granted citizenship at independence under the Malaysian social contract. He also spoke out against the non-Malays who were critical of the special position of the Malays and other members of the bumiputra (indigenous people) ethnic majority, stating: "If they (non-Malays) question our rights, then we should question theirs. So far we have not heard the Malays questioning their right to citizenship when they came in droves from other countries."
The most controversial of his remarks, however, was his declaration that "Umno is willing to risk lives and bathe in blood to defend the race and religion (Islam, the official religion of Malaysia and of the Malays). Don't play with fire. If they (non-Malays) mess with our rights, we will mess with theirs."Hasnoor's remarks formed one third of the three disputed speeches made; another one was that by UMNO Youth Information Chief Azimi Daim, who said "when tension rises, the blood of Malay warriors will run in our veins", while the third was made by a delegate from Perak, Hashim Suboh, who referred to UMNO Youth Chief and Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein's act of brandishing the kris (Malay dagger): "Datuk Hisham has unsheathed his keris, waved his keris, kissed his keris. We want to ask Datuk Hisham when is he going to use it."
As a result of the controversy, UMNO Deputy President and Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak announced that "we are seriously looking into the wisdom of having (a) live telecast" of the proceedings.
The speeches later became the subject of a debate in Parliament. Leader of the Opposition, Lim Kit Siang from the Democratic Action Party (DAP), said that "The speeches have upset non-Malays and they are feeling insecure. It is sad that Malay leaders can still speak like this 50 years after independence. We feel excluded and threatened." He filed a motion to have the Dewan Rakyat (the lower house of Parliament) consider the subject of the speeches, but it was rejected by the Speaker. Another lawmaker from the DAP, Karpal Singh, accused Hasnoor and the other delegates of having committed sedition, which under the Sedition Act is a crime in Malaysia. Lim Keng Yaik, President of the Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (Malaysian People's Movement), a major party in the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition government led by UMNO, also expressed worry about "where these sentiments will lead to". Najib responded that "Some inexperienced speakers got carried away," and assured them that "We reject such sentiments ... this is not official policy." He also stated that the speakers were being investigated by the Police for the crime of sedition.
Soon after, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, President of UMNO and the Prime Minister, announced that three unidentified speakers at the assembly had been officially reprimanded for their statements. In Singapore, the Straits Times described this as "the first time that Umno has taken action based on police reports and complaints by the opposition and non-Malay communities over the years on the same issue."The following day, the UMNO-owned English daily, the New Straits Times, identified the three speakers as Hasnoor, Azimi and Hashim. Hasnoor said he "told the party leadership that I was sorry for what I had said. It was not my intention to touch on racial sensitivities and to hurt the feelings of the other races." He also suggested that the proceedings of UMNO assemblies not be carried live in the future.
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It was in mid-2006 when Mahathir fired his first salvo against Abdullah Badawi and his government, gaining front-page prominence in the widely circulating Malaysian daily, the New Straits Times. Since the paper is UMNO-controlled, Abdullah Badawi must have been aware of these criticisms and perhaps even gave the green-light for them to be published, in line with his "open-government" philosophy.
What shocked many within and without UMNO were not Mahathir's criticisms per se, but the vitriol and vehemence that accompanied them. Many ministers and the Barisan Nasional leaders responded by rallying around Abdullah.
Mahathir's unhappiness stemmed from the abandonment of the crooked bridge project, the future fate of the national car company that he inspired, Proton, of corruption in high places among UMNO members, but especially within Abdullah's family and over the general nature of affairs in Malaysia, which he described as a "police state".
With the UMNO General Assembly approaching and no indication that the Mahathir-Abdullah crisis would be resolved, Malaysia was bracing itself for open confrontation during the Assembly after Mahathir announced that he was attending too. Only a mild heart attack prevented him from doing so. Pleas from close friends and family to consider his national legacy against a concerted anti-Abdullah campaign also seem to have borne fruit, despite the ex-premier making it clear that his struggle would go on.
Abdullah dominated the stage at the UMNO General Assembly with his opening and closing speeches. For once, everyone present felt that he sounded authoritative and convincing. The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange also shared this new confidence, breaching the 1,000 mark for the first time since Abdullah became Prime Minister.
However, the overall mood and tenor of the debate during the General Assembly was decidedly negative, prompting a largely pessimistic reaction from the non-Malays, who opined the assembly was marked by too much chauvinistic drama epitomised by the image of the Malay dagger, or kris, and threats from some UMNO members to "run amok", if the social contract that has held Malaysia together since 1969 was fundamentally altered.
For the first time in Malaysia's history, the General Assembly was telecast live on ASTRO, the Malaysian cable channel, and UMNO TV on the web. Selected speeches were also telecast live on TV3, RTM1, NTV7, and TV9. It was estimated that around six million viewers watched this UMNO "reality show", including a large number of non-Malays.
Most UMNO representatives did not realise they were being watched by millions. The assembly proceeded as usual, complete with philosophical speeches, pantuns and dirty jokes. Hishammudin, the UMNO Youth leader, yet again, did not forget to bring his kris along and kissed it in public - prompting some commentators to ask when he planned to use it. The assembly was also peppered with chauvinistic comments and gender slurs, while some raised totally petty and irrelevant personal matters, such as the "unIslamic dress" of one minister's wife.
The overall impact of the assembly was not really understood until the final day of the meeting, when Abdullah Badawi, in his summing-up speech, told the UMNO delegates that their speeches and behaviour during the meeting were closely watched and scrutinised by the Malaysian public - both Malay and non-Malay.
It was quite clear when Abdullah spoke that he had received reports that there were negative reactions to some chauvinistic speeches and Hishamuddin's kris-waving histrionics. The Prime Minister then spent about 30 minutes trying to pacify the Malaysian non-Malay public, stressing that UMNO leaders were both leaders of the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional and all Malaysians. This effort was only partially successful it seems.
The first reaction emanated from the leaders of the Barisan Nasional constituent parties. They were clearly unhappy with what was said about them during the assembly and responded by publicly charging UMNO leaders of creating unnecessary ethnic tension in the country.
Then came an avalanche of public responses from different community leaders as well from the NGOs. Again, UMNO leaders were brunt of their attacks.
Suddenly, UMNO was under siege. Rather than raise a spirited defence of the party, to the surprise of many within the party, senior UMNO politicians warned some of the delegates who spoke during the general assembly that they could be charged in court under the Sedition Act of 1970 for making chauvinistic and ethnically-sensitive "public" speeches. "Public" simply because the General Assembly was telecast live. Needless to say, the 2006 General Assembly will probably be the first and last as far as live broadcast is concerned.
UMNO General Assemblies in the coming years are likely to take on a similar form if the assemblies of 2005 and 2006 are anything to go by. Abdullah, UMNO and their Barisan Nasional colleagues continue to be boxed in by the New Economic Policy (NEP) discourse, a debate that so far has not addressed a more basic issue that pertains to the Federal Constitution, in particular to Article 8 "on Equality" which "allows for 'special privileges' to the 'minority' (disabled, etc.), principally, as an exception" and Article 153 "on Special Privileges of the Natives".
Article 153 allows for "special privileges" for the majority, based on the historical agreement that it is a pre-condition to equality. This is supposed to help bumiputeras achieve economic parity with non-Malays. However, unlike in the NEP of 1970, no quantitative targets and no timetables were set in the 1957 Constitution.
Unless the Malaysian social contract, and by extension the constitution is "renegotiated" and Article 153 is made much clearer in terms of its objectives, quantitative targets and fixed time schedules, the New Economic Policy will be repackaged again and again, eventually living up to its more popular abbreviation, the Never Ending Policy. Only UMNO has the real power required to effect this renegotiation - until such a time, politics in Malaysia will simply be a rehash of issues previously raised.
Ultimately, UMNO has to rise above it all and consider what is good for Malaysia and UMNO, rather than just UMNO alone.
What they said and thereafter
The 2006 UMNO Annual General Assembly was the first ever to be telecast live. Hasnoor Sidang Hussein was among the delegates permitted to address the assembly, and like all others, his speech was carried live.
In the course of his remarks, Hasnoor stated that non-Malay citizens needed to be grateful for having been granted citizenship at independence under the Malaysian social contract. He also spoke out against the non-Malays who were critical of the special position of the Malays and other members of the bumiputra (indigenous people) ethnic majority, stating: "If they (non-Malays) question our rights, then we should question theirs. So far we have not heard the Malays questioning their right to citizenship when they came in droves from other countries."
The most controversial of his remarks, however, was his declaration that "Umno is willing to risk lives and bathe in blood to defend the race and religion (Islam, the official religion of Malaysia and of the Malays). Don't play with fire. If they (non-Malays) mess with our rights, we will mess with theirs."Hasnoor's remarks formed one third of the three disputed speeches made; another one was that by UMNO Youth Information Chief Azimi Daim, who said "when tension rises, the blood of Malay warriors will run in our veins", while the third was made by a delegate from Perak, Hashim Suboh, who referred to UMNO Youth Chief and Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein's act of brandishing the kris (Malay dagger): "Datuk Hisham has unsheathed his keris, waved his keris, kissed his keris. We want to ask Datuk Hisham when is he going to use it."
As a result of the controversy, UMNO Deputy President and Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak announced that "we are seriously looking into the wisdom of having (a) live telecast" of the proceedings.
The speeches later became the subject of a debate in Parliament. Leader of the Opposition, Lim Kit Siang from the Democratic Action Party (DAP), said that "The speeches have upset non-Malays and they are feeling insecure. It is sad that Malay leaders can still speak like this 50 years after independence. We feel excluded and threatened." He filed a motion to have the Dewan Rakyat (the lower house of Parliament) consider the subject of the speeches, but it was rejected by the Speaker. Another lawmaker from the DAP, Karpal Singh, accused Hasnoor and the other delegates of having committed sedition, which under the Sedition Act is a crime in Malaysia. Lim Keng Yaik, President of the Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (Malaysian People's Movement), a major party in the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition government led by UMNO, also expressed worry about "where these sentiments will lead to". Najib responded that "Some inexperienced speakers got carried away," and assured them that "We reject such sentiments ... this is not official policy." He also stated that the speakers were being investigated by the Police for the crime of sedition.
Soon after, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, President of UMNO and the Prime Minister, announced that three unidentified speakers at the assembly had been officially reprimanded for their statements. In Singapore, the Straits Times described this as "the first time that Umno has taken action based on police reports and complaints by the opposition and non-Malay communities over the years on the same issue."The following day, the UMNO-owned English daily, the New Straits Times, identified the three speakers as Hasnoor, Azimi and Hashim. Hasnoor said he "told the party leadership that I was sorry for what I had said. It was not my intention to touch on racial sensitivities and to hurt the feelings of the other races." He also suggested that the proceedings of UMNO assemblies not be carried live in the future.
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Fast forward - March 8, 2008
Opposition parties won 82 seats (out of 222 seats in parliament) or 36.9% of parliamentary seats while BN (UMNO, MCA, MIC, Gerakan) only managing to secure the remaining 140 seats or 63.1%. It marked also the first time since the 1969 election that the coalition did not win a 2/3 supermajority in Malaysia parliament required to pass the amendments to the Malaysian Constitution. In addition, 5 of 13 state legislatures were won by the opposition (PKR, DAP, PAS), compared with only one in the last election.
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Serve them right!
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