Umno can change for the better

Umno deputy president Mat Hasan kick-started the party's general assembly 2019 tonight with the opening speech of party wings' meetings.

I went through the entire speech which texts were forwarded to me by an editor friend.

I like it.

The way I understand it, Mat Hasan basically made these points.

1. Umno and its friends can defeat Pakatan in the next general election and that's not even its hardest task.

2. The hardest task is for Umno to change itself into a better political party, relevant to the new realities of Malaysia and the rest of the world.

3. Umno does not belong to any of its leaders or even members, but to all Malaysians, particularly Malays.

4. Umno must be led by leaders with the highest level of moral standards and integrity in order for the party to have the right to lead the country.

Okay, the speech was quite long but those four points are the most important, I think.

I agree with Mat Hasan on all those.

If Umno members could take them all seriously and actually do what Mat Hasan told them, I believe the party does indeed have a future.

Kicking out Pakatan from the seat of power would be pointless if Umno continues the way it was before the GE14 defeat.

It has to be a better political party.

Enough of the nonsense such as money politics, positions in the party being inherited by family members, rempit culture, apple polishing etc.

Otherwise, the people will kick it out again, and the likelihood of it getting up again after that is likely to be zero.

A prominent pro-Umno blogger once told me that the party would never change.

"This is Umno whether you like it or not and it will stay this way. Take it or leave it," he said in our conversation several months after GE14.

I refused to believe in what he said.

I believe that Umno can change for the better. I believe it have sincere leaders capable of initiating the much needed changes.

Leaders like Mat Hasan can do it, I think.

Yeah, I know, some would say "Hey, you are not even an Umno member. What right do you have to talk about our party that way?"

Well, as Mat Hasan said, Umno actually belongs to all Malaysians and I'm one of them.

This is what I told my friend who insisted that Umno would never change its ways,

"What is important is not what you want, or what Umno leaders want or even what Umno members want. What is truly important is what the rakyat want."

Mat Hasan actually said the same thing tonight.

And I'm glad he said it.

Well, good luck with your general assembly, Umno.

Hopefully something good and meaningful will come out of it, not just for Umno but for all rakyat Malaysia.