Umno Needs Corruption To Survive. With Corruption Umno Will Not Survive!

Two weeks back I asked “Who is running the country?” Umno, PN, Umno or Azam Baki? That is still a work in progress. Why Azam Baki? Why not? On the weekend we had 1000 policemen out on the streets of KL to ensure that Azam Baki was not overly embarrassed by Malaysians who wanted to tangkap him. Is that not an indication of how powerful this Azam Baki is?

Today we want to know who is in charge of Umno? Zahid Hamidi, Najib Razak, Mael Bera or persons unknown? Who is playing the violin that prime minister Mael Bera is dancing to? What about the convicted felon…is cash really King? Or is Umno’s president Zahid Hamid, pulling the strings that makes Umno work?

Zahid Hamidi has been asked to enter his defence for over 47 counts of money laundering, bribery and criminal breach of trust. Our Federal Court judges led by CJ Tengku Maimun are persons of absolute integrity and professionalism, but still the AG, if instructed by the prime minister, could have engineered another outcome for Zahid Hamidi, if that is what the prime minister wishes. Obviously Mael Bera, an Umno prime Minister, wants the president of Umno to be more focussed on solving his legal problems than to focus resolving Umno's problems.. Zahid Hamidi is not amused. Hostilities are about to break out between Zahid and Mael Bera. Not good for Mael Bera, not good for Zahid Hamidi, not good for Umno.

And that convicted felon has finally decided that the hot shot Tan Sri lawyer is not as hot as he thought him to be. He wants to bring in a QC for his SRC appeal - a clear indication that maybe, just maybe, a political solution to his conviction, might just not be possible.

And Ismail Sabry? What about him? He owes Najib Razak big time because Najib brought him up through the ranks and gave him political sustenance. And yet, if he allows Najib and Zahid Hamidi to be free of their legal encumbrances,, he will be the first casualty. Najib wants Mael Bera out and Zahid Hamidi in as PM should Umno BN wins PRU15.

And then there are the people supposed to be aligned with Ismail Sabri and with Muhyiddin Yassin, who are lurking in the background waiting for their carpe diem moment ala Langkah Sheraton. Ignore them at your own peril.

This grand conundrum of vested interests, raw political power, big money, war lords, factions, court clusters, opportunistic Royals and frogs, makes for an Umno that desperately needs leadership and yet, lacks it, in equal measures.

So who really is in charge of Umno?

PRN Malacca was an unmitigated triumph for the convicted felon. Mael Bera and Zahid Hamidi went MIA. Johor will be more of the same. With each electoral victory, state and eventually Federal, who really runs Umno will become self evident. We wait.

Today corruption has become a nasty word. Why? because being corrupt may get you arrested, or worse, you may be convicted of being corrupt. The Umno Court Clusters, once the who and who of Umno’s political elites, is proof positive that if you do the crime, you may eventually have to do the time. Who wants millions in the Bank if one is in Sungai Buloh vacationing at his Majesty expense? Certainly not Umno’s political elites!

Najib’s political future has been neutered with his conviction. Next will be Zahid Hamidi while the prime minister from whose person all power, judicial and political, flows, is quiet. It does not take an Einstein to figure out what Ismail Sabri MO is. With every Umno leader incarcerated, his position as PM is resurrected. Kan?

Politics in Malaysia is a zero sum game. Someone has to lose for someone else to win. Who win or lose is of no benefit to Umno for Umno needs all its Umno court cluster to walk free, Umno needs Najib, Mael Bera and every one within Umno to be focussed on the survival of Umno as PRU15 looms. This is not happening.

Zahid and Najib can see this. Ismail Sabry cannot. Mael Bera only thought is that for Najib or Zahid to win, he has to lose. His president now has to defend himself against 47 counts of money laundering, bribery and criminal breach of trust, his president, Zahid Hamidi, is not amused.

There is no easy way out for Umno or for Zahid , Najib or Ismail Sabri. Winning Malacca and potentially Johor is a good start…but for whom?

The only certainty that will come out of all this is that we the rakyat will be the eventual winners. The “cash is king” mentality is untenable and is fast becoming too heavy a price to pay for any Umno leaders who wants to stay in political clover.

Umno needs to stay corrupt to survive ….anything else will not work. And yet, in the times that we now live in, corruption is untenable. Corruption is unacceptable and corruption within Umno has to be eliminated if Umno wants to survive politically. Corruption will decide Umno’s fate. Umno needs corruption to survive while at the same time, Umno knows that if it fails to eliminate corruption, it will not survive. Either way, Umno is doomed. For many in Umno, it is better that Umno is corrupt for there will be no Umno if Umno is not corrupt! Que sera, sera.

So who is in charge of Umno? Go ask Azam Baki!