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MAY 12, 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 18 | SEARCH ASIAWEEK
UMNO's top two leaders are decided. Now the race is to follow them By ZOHER ABDOOLCARIM How important are the May 11 internal elections of the United Malays National Organization, Malaysia's top political party? On the surface, not very. Party president and Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and deputy Abdullah Ahmad Badawi are not being challenged. So we're talking yawner right there. Yet Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman, a delegate to the coming party assembly, describes the polls as "crucial," and he isn't trying to be funny. With Mahathir and Abdullah already past the post, what Shamsul and other delegates are focusing on is the vice-presidential race. After last November's general elections, in which UMNO slid markedly in popularity, Mahathir hinted that this parliamentary term could be his last. If the PM bowed out, Abdullah would move up and one of the three elected vice presidents would slot in behind him as his new deputy. A neat and orderly succession. In theory. There is no real sign that Mahathir will step down any time soon. In his latest monthly column for Japan's Mainichi Daily News, Mahathir said that while he does "get sick like everyone else" - a reference, perhaps, to when he was hospitalized for a lung infection last year - it is "nothing so serious as to force me to retire." But Mahathir, 74, will have to go one day, which is why the race for the vice presidencies is so wide - a record nine contenders - and so intense. Though the voting could well proceed differently, going by the number of nominations from UMNO divisions, incumbent Najib Tun Razak, the defense minister, and first-timer Abdul Ghani Othman, chief minister of southern Johor state, should get in, with either Sabah chief minister Osu Sukam or Selangor counterpart Abu Hassan Omar (also first-timers) taking the other slot (see profiles page 26). There are complicating factors. The vice president who polls the most votes may not necessarily get picked as the next deputy PM. In fact, the deputy has usually been the second (as in the case of Abdullah last year) or third (Mahathir himself) vice president. Then, the next general elections might not be held until after the next party polls in 2003, after another team of vice presidents might be chosen. Also, on April 24, contenders for the more senior posts met Mahathir and promised to stop all forms of campaigning and to avoid money politics. This was followed by a verbal agreement by most of the candidates for the party's ruling body, the Supreme Council. "If I find someone has campaigned," Mahathir said after the first pledge, "I will tell the delegates to reject such a candidate." He later said that though he had told candidates not to use money, he had not said they must not campaign. Whatever the fine print, through this measure Mahathir can apparently throw out even an elected candidate - a clever card to hold in case he does not like a particular winner. During the assembly, there will be soul-searching over the ground UMNO yielded during the general elections and, undoubtedly, some bashing of Anwar Ibrahim and the opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia. But in the end the gathering will be about winning, losing and how the game is played. And still no one plays it better than Mahathir Mohamad. Reported by SANTHA OORJITHAM/Kuala Lumpur Contest To No-Contest Flash Back 13 years to 1987. That's when Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, then UMNO vice president and finance minister, challenged and nearly unseated party president and PM Mahathir Mohamad. Mahathir won by a mere 43 out of 1,479 votes cast, and learned a hard lesson: use the power of being in power to change the rules of the game so that winning becomes less nerve-wracking. The year after Razaleigh's failed challenge, UMNO began a process of amending the party constitution in ways that strengthened the position of incumbents. For a time, the president and his deputy got 10 "bonus votes" for each nomination they received. This was eventually scrapped in favor of candidates needing a much higher minimum number of nominations to run. For example, before, only two nominations were required for the presidency. Now it's 50, with 33 for deputy, 17 for vice president and 8 for the Supreme Council. The higher threshold prevented Razaleigh from contesting any of the top posts - though he had never publicly confirmed he wanted to. UMNO has also increased the number of "automatic" delegates to party elections. Previously, just the division chiefs were automatically delegates. Now their deputies, vice chairmen and the heads of the youth and women's wings have seats reserved too. Needless to say, such delegates have a stake in preserving UMNO's status quo. Over the years, party leaders and delegates have also occasionally introduced temporary bans on contesting the top two posts. In January this year, the Supreme Council "advised" party members that Mahathir and Deputy PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should not be challenged. The call has been heeded. At the very top in UMNO, winning has become a no-lose proposition. Write to Asiaweek at mail@web.asiaweek.com
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