Umno general assemblies are usually chest-thumping sessions that allow leaders and members room to give vent to their ethnic nationalist sentiments. Inevitably though, there have always been the odd occasions when the spectre of ugly racism reared its ugly head.

The recent most Umno general assembly is no exception.

Once again, distinguished personages invoked the ghost of May 13 with the veiled threat that if the Malay agenda as contained in the NEP is not accepted by other Malaysians, there would be a repeat of violence and bloodshed that almost devastated our nation 35 years ago.

Such a naked threat would be superfluous in substance in many ways.

For a start, Malaysians of all races have more or less accepted the special privileges of the Malays as a perennial fact of life. These privileges are enshrined in the constitution, and questioning them would incur the wrath of the Sedition Act anyway.

No matter how the privileges have been abused to enrich the powerful and the well-connected, people just grin and bear it, like persevering through the pain of a persistent toothache.

It is also ironic that Umno luminaries have to resort to an old haunting of ethnic bloodshed in order to get their way.

In resolving to continue the ideology and practice of the old NEP, they are admitting that 34 years of implementing the Malay agenda have failed in achieving the original targets set in 1970. Pak Lah himself has said as much in his opening speech to the general assembly.

Social contract betrayed

In more democratic circumstances, the present crop of Umno leaders would have been held accountable for such disastrous failures. They have betrayed the social contract with their Malay constituency. Given another alternative, they should be voted out of office, or forced to resign. But democracy works in strange ways, among the Malays in particular, and in Malaysia in general.
Frankly, I am amazed at how prominent leaders in Umno can invoke the old incantation of hatred and violence without shame or guilt, general assembly after general assembly, decade after decade.

Would it not be better for all Malaysians, especially for the innocent younger generations from all walks of life, if the ghost of May 13 is to be laid to rest forever, in the name of national reconciliation and mutual healing?

Should we not pledge, as a civilised modern polity, never to allow the ethnic bloodbath of 1969 to happen again, rather than proposing it as a possible political option for Umno in the 21st century?

Just think of what negative responses such threat of ethnic violence may evoke in the hearts of the silent majority in the country?

I am not thinking of the Chinese merely. The Chinese are pragmatic people, able to survive under the most adverse of conditions for millennia, in far flung corners of the globe. Surviving in the face of overwhelming odds is what they do best. They certainly have the numbers.

Perhaps by now, they have grown numb to such racist chest-thumping emanating from Umno general assemblies. It is just another toothache.

What about other bumis?

I am also thinking of the Indians who, as a community, probably suffer the most disparity in the redistribution of socio-economic opportunities under the NEP in spite of and because of the MIC.

And what about the other ethnic groups that have been classified dismissively as "others", the Orang Asli, the Eurasians, the people with Portuguese blood, and the Muslim converts of various ethnic origins who are not strictly considered as Malays?

Then there are those millions and millions of Sarawakians and Sabahans from some 70 indigenous ethnic roots. The sweeping and radical changes that have transformed the life of a large section of the Malay community under 34 years of the NEP have mostly passed these "others" by. So how should they react to the excavation of the May 13 skeletons by Umno stalwarts?

If they are reasonable, they will sit in silent but resentful judgement. They will watch the well-dressed, well-heeled, and well-fed Umno delegates thronging the halls of PWTC, and reflect that these people are probably richer than most Malaysians and should have nothing to complain about in the existing scheme of things.

Older and wiser souls should shake their heads in disbelief. Threatening people with violent and bloody reprisals if you do not get what you want from them is the dastardly and cowardly act of the average village hooligan.

If such a threat were to be issued in an Iban longhouse, the culprit would probably be hauled up before the council of elders, and be given a severe tongue lashing about the need to berandau (calm rational discussion) in matters that involves conflict. A recalcitrant offender will be charged in a Penghulu Court and be fined according to the provisions of their adat-istiadat.

I can also imagine the silent question that may have arisen from the hearts of all those "other" Malaysians who have not benefited from the NEP, including those who are as indigenous to this blessed land as the Malay leaders within Umno. They could well ask, "What if we also threaten the nation with violent social disruption and bloody racial riots if we do not get what we want, according to our respective ethnic agenda?"

Reform Umno culture

Fortunately, Malaysians have learned not to be baited into emotive outbursts of reverse-racism by seditious racist remarks. In this sense, we as a nation are far more mature than our predecessors; we have indeed learned from the lesson of May 13 in more ways than one.

One lesson learned from May 13 is that a prime minister and an Umno president could be removed by the occurrence of a massive race riot in Kuala Lumpur, by tarnishing his image as a "Chinese lover". I am not claiming inside knowledge of a conspiracy within Umno at the time; for all I know, the retirement of Bapa Malaysia after 1969 could have been the inadvertent result of the uncontrolled run of events.

Nevertheless, the political saga enfolding to-day before our eyes is most intriguing. We have a new prime minister who sounds interested in reforming the ossified political culture of Umno and Malaysia.

He even talks about removing the crutches of the NEP, in order to goad the Malays into more competitive players on the local as well as the global playing fields. And he seems bent on cleaning up corruption, within Umno and the government. As he confessed publicly, the full burden of the unprecedented electoral mandate given to him weighs heavily on his shoulders and his conscience.

Unfortunately for him, Umno has come a long way since the early years of idealism, dedication and sacrifice for the greater good of the community. They have since built up an intricate and all-pervasive network of lucrative connections between party, government and business.

Political power could mean immense personal and corporate wealth, and a hefty war-chest is essential to the acquisition and maintenance of that power itself. It is a vicious cycle of power struggle that has changed and corrupted the early ideological purity of the cause fought by Umno beyond redemption.

Unanimous endorsement

The unavoidable conflicts of vested interest groups have become the fault lines along which the powerful tectonic plates within Umno crush and grate against one another beneath the veneer of superficial party unity. Anybody caught in the cross-fire will be decimated, as Anwar Ibrahim discovered in the unusual circumstances following the financial typhoon of 1997.

In this context, what Pak Lah has proposed, in terms of eradicating money politics and removing the crutches of the NEP, is nothing less than a thunderbolt that threatens to strike at the foundation of survival for many powerful Umno politicians and their interlocking network of alliances.

In short, Pak Lah has poked a red-hot iron rod into the heart of the hornets' nest. The bees will be restive tonight!

Eventually, Pak Lah got his seemingly unanimous endorsement as Umno president. Was it a Pyrrhic victory, given that there was no contest for the post, and that the surprising results of the party election can hardly be said to have consolidated his control of the party? We will never know.

In the face of this unruly mess, and not having the monopoly of power dominating the entire party structure like his predecessor, Pak Lah seems to have done the next best thing.

He concedes partially to the buzzing hornets, and will have to wait another day for his idea of ethical and political reform. He realises that politics is the art of not attempting the impossible.

What the recent Umno general assembly has shown to the world is that Umno has not entered into a new era. Sincere lovers of the Umno cause will have to count the immense costs of this missed opportunity. For others, it will be just business as before.

Meanwhile, the fresh and old political forces that have emerged will disperse, thinking already of the strategic alliance that must be forged in the next three years, in preparation for the next round of deadly shadow play, for the highest prize in the land.

The hornet's sting will be sharpened for fellow hornets.