Ummi Hafilda Ali, whose unrequited love for Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim led to the chain of events that that transported him from the deputy prime minister's opulent official residence to the mind-numbing loneliness of an isolated prison cell, now wants to lead UMNO's Puteri wing. She failed in every endeavour to translate her 15 minutes of Warholean fame into something more lasting. A series of messy court cases did not help. Nor did Dato' Seri Anwar, as UMNO custom demands, disappear into the woodwork. He is as strong, if not stronger, politician now than when he was gaoled. But she needs a life. What better than in politics. As the head of UMNO Puteri.
The UMNO President, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, wants no one to lead UMNO Puteri but the lady she appointed as its interim head, Azalina Othman, a lawyer and, if the allegations and accusations against her is true, a lesbian. And corrupt. The man who accused Dato' Seri Anwar of homosexuality in print has also accused Azalina of it. And of using party funds to buy a lady, allegedly her lover, a Mercedes Benz and cars for members of her family. This is ignored. The lady who alleged this in a police report finds herself before the UMNO disciplinary board instead. Accusations like these carry weight only if the UMNO President wants him or her destroyed. Dr Mahathir wanted Dato' Seri Anwar destroyed but not Azalina. He wants her to be the elected head of UMNO Puteri. In UMNO, often, what is sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander.
What started off a brilliant move to rein in the young, confident Malay woman in the work place dissipated in less than two years into yet another good idea gone awry. These women, out of place in the women's wing of UMNO "makchiks" (elderly women) and other Malay parties, rushed into UMNO Puteri and out as fast when they found an authoritarian acting leadership wanting its way. High profile women joined and left with equal abandon. The UMNO Wanita wing, whose refusal to change brought UMNO Puteri into being, remains as hostile as ever to it, seeing it as a threat to its own existence. Like in every section of UMNO, the leaders think the young wanting a say in its affairs is yet another proof of barbarians at the gates. Change is resisted. Those wanting change are disciplined. Rome and its latter-day offshoot Constantinople fell when its leaders felt their survival was more important than the empire's.
So, in the UMNO Puteri elections, all stops are pulled so Azalina Othman is returned unopposed. It tells much of UMNO Puteri that no division has yet dared to nominate anyone other than Azalina. There is no coercion, says UMNO leaders, but that they say it is, in UMNO circles, a heavy-handed shorthand for what would happen if they disobey. This race to be the head of UMNO Puteri head encapsulates all that is wrong in UMNO. Elections are of use only if the voters obey the Leader and vote for whomsoever he desires. UMNO Puteri has lost its way. As many join it as leave. Those who come into it in hope and confidence leave embittered and frustrated. Should they ever decide to join a political party later, it would not be UMNO but Keadilan or PAS. UMNO Puteri now views its members -- most articulate, well-educated, self-confident, often professional -- as voting fodder as the MIC its vote bank, there to to elect their Leader, one who must not be challenged at any cost, and then obey them implicitly.
Ummi Hafilda's entry into the race is proof yet of the empire striking back. She is the vanguard of the barbarians at the gate who has climbed the walls into the city to spread her mayhem where she can. It upsets many in UMNO she is a candidate. But that she did is the accumulated dissonance within Malay and, to a lesser extent, Malaysian, society. She is the trailblazer of the modern reincarnation of the Visigoths that laid Rome to waste, a barbarian out to shake the complacency of the status quo. She came into the race precisely to shake up the Establishment, intent upon protecting the status quo from within. Ummi Hafilda is a rank outsider, even a figure of fun, but she frightens the Establishment. She charges into the race with a demand for justice for the man she helped destroy, but she is believed precisely because of this desire for a change that would not be allowed. She has become a proxy in the eternal battle for the Malay feudal mind, the one UMNO lost when its leader humiliated an UMNO chieftain, and threw UMNO into a tailspin. That is why, in this race, she is a bigger figure than she could ever be.
With a third of the nominations over, and with less than a fortnight for all Puteri divisions to complete their nominations, Azalina is the undoubted front runner. She is unpopular. It does not matter. Unpopularity, in UMNO eyes, is proof of leadership qualities needed to run UMNO and the country. The opaque questions and answers that rise, in UMNO, ministerial speeches and statements, and off-the-cuff remarks, suggest a deep worry that someone UMNO leaders do not want would emerge as Puteri leader. It is more important, in UMNO eyes, the status quo be maintained at all cost. But the ground seethes -- in typical Malay fashion, it is by moving to the sidelines and await developments. It is difficult, at the best of times, to gauge Malay reaction. Especially when speaking out, as it is in a feudal society, is "derhaka" (treachery). When too many move to the sidelines, the regime is finished. That time has not come. But go the way it does, it would, sooner than one expects.
But should Azalina, as UMNO leaders fervently hope, be returned unopposed, UMNO is in more trouble than it is in. In a contested election, Azalina Othman could romp home without difficulty. But then she may not. Nomination by a division does not mean that all its delegates would vote for her. Dr Mahathir realised that when in 1987, his challenger, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, with only two nominations, the minimum needed to stand, almost won the UMNO presidency. That UMNO cannot accept in UMNO Puteri. Unlike in 1987, too many naysayers in UMNO are out to give the leaders a black eye. That Ummi Hafilda threw her hat into the ring is proof the barbarians are in the city. The encirclements around the battlements tighten. More Ummi Hafildas will sneak in. Another empire is about to bite the dust.
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