Should Umno have a role in Malaysia’s new dawn?

Originally conceived as one post, this is part 2 of what is turning out to be a 3 part series :P

Do we need Umno to survive in order to have a viable two-party system?

I am inclined to answer in the negative.

I very much agree that a one party or one coalition Malaysia can only mean bad things. That is more or less what got BN where it is today.

However, as the Umno crisis brews, I suppose I am hoping that it will end with Umno ceasing to be a major force in Malaysian politics – especially at the federal level (Not the end of the world if they keep states like Johor and Pahang).

I firmly support multiparty politics – without viable competition, there can be no healthy democracy.

However, I believe that race-based politics have no place in a better Malaysian future.  Although ideology is far from the be all and end all of politics, I have been observing (especially during Hindraf and in recent political developments) how it does play a pivotal role.

I have often said that as long as the country’s politics are split along racial lines, the country will be split along racial lines.

Thus, I believe that while there is nothing particularly great about a system that is divided say based on left wing versus right wing political ideologies, it is probably preferable to what we have presently in Malaysia. Even more diverse multi-party politics, such as they have in some European countries, could be as good or better.

How do we get from here to there?

While it would not really help in terms of weeding out its endemic corruption, I suppose a merging of the BN component parties would not be a bad move (if not particularly likely – again, because of ideology, or lack thereof).

I think it would also be healthy if eventually a third or even fourth force would emerge – perhaps even as splinters from existing parties (Again, not the end of the world). I’m hard pressed to think of what ideologies it may be built on, but as long as it is not narrow, parochial or exclusive, it’d be alright with me.

Talking to Li Tsin’s dad the other day, it occurred to me that I hadn’t really tried to guess what the future internal dynamics of Pakatan Rakyat may be.

Briefly here, and maybe more later: Well, I remain optimistic. There are undoubtedly built-in factors that may cause a few hitches – coming back to ideology, if Pas and DAP do not evolve just a little bit from the goals they were originally formed to achieve, there will continue to be a few hitches.

However, there are already signs of this evolution. Whether it’s Khalid Samad’s famous church visit, Lim Kit Siang’s retraction on the Perak MB and his son’s raising of salaries for Penang’s Muslim religious teachers, the Kedah MB’s recent gestures regarding temples the movement of deceased non-Muslim’s  from Langkawi to the mainland, and so on.

Under these circumstances, for the immediate future, I would still advocate strengthening the electoral base of Pakatan Rakyat to stabilise it (because right now, the battle lines are still integrity vs. corruption, unity vs. integrity, etc). At the same time, as we reach that stability, we should always be wary of over-concentration of power – continual strengthening of institutions designed to provide check and balance can only mean good things for Malaysia.

Part 3 will deal with what Malaysians can do to help make the (admittedly and very understandably scary to many) idea of an Umno-less Malaysia more palatable, and how and why Malay interests should be safeguarded.