The dust has not settled, though the 55th Umno general assembly was concluded on 25 Sept 2004. At least, three main issues still linger in the minds of most Umno members and Malaysians at large - money politics, Anwar's release and 'Malay agenda'.

These three issues drew much attention from Umno leaders, party delegates and commentators alike, during and after the annual conference.

As Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi came into office in October 2003, with a pledge to wipe out corruption in public and private sectors, there has been rising expectation that he would deal a death blow to money politics in his party Umno.

What's more, he himself is seen as a victim of rampant money politics in the 1993 party election, where he lost his vice-president seat.

However, his initial stand on strict campaign rules, which included barring candidates from organising trips and hosting dinners for delegates, did not sufficiently indicate that the party had successfully gotten rid of money politics, as the relaxation of such rule in the eleventh hour opened the flood gates.

Following the unexpected results for the Supreme Council elections, which witnessed 'underdog' candidates being elected to the office and several senior ministers defeated, allegations that thousands of ringgit changed hands at hotel corridors were rife.

New Straits Times' Editor-in-Chief, Kalimullah Hassan, writes in his Sunday column, "much as some Umno leaders and delegates refuse to acknowledge publicly that there were wads, or more accurately, envelopes of money that shifted from some candidates into the hands of delegates, deep down, they know that this did happen".

Furthermore, an online survey by Utusan Malaysia (27 Sept 2004) showed that 49.9 percent of respondents believe that money politics in Umno is rampant and uncontrolled. 25.6 percent of the respondents think that curbing money politics is impossible.

Shocking revelations

More shocking were revelations of the widespread of not only money politics, but also 'politics of deceit and threat' at all party levels.

Ibrahim Ali, former Pasir Mas Umno division chief, who was removed from his post in Nov 2003 following re-delineation of electoral boundaries, reveals in his book, Dilema Neraca Retak (The Dilemma of Shattered Scale), that Umno branch leaders were forced to forge minutes of branch meetings in order to endorse nominations of certain leaders.

The branch leaders were either threatened and/or paid some amount of money to keep their mouth shut. The quota system that requires aspirants for party posts to meet a minimum number of nominations to qualify for contests made the situation worse.

In many instances, those who had money and were favored by party leaders could win without contest. The quota system, according to Ibrahim, not only inhibits democracy, but also facilitates the politics of money, deceit and threat.

In response to the scourge of money politics that tarnishes the dominant Malay party's integrity, party stalwarts resolved to push for more drastic measures.

Former vice-president, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, suggests that Supreme Council members should be elected by the three million ordinary members rather than by about 2,500 party delegates as is the practice at present.

This is seen as a move that would not only make vote-buying more difficult, but would also empower broad based party grassroots. A similar suggestion, however, had been put forward prior to the Umno's Special General Assembly in June 2002, but came to no avail.

With Umno's spectacular victory in the last general election and its leaders now keen to consolidate their position, it is difficult to see the party adopting such a bold step at the moment.

Anwar's release

Another issue facing Umno is Anwar Ibrahim's release. Despite Umno leaders' insistence that Anwar is no longer an issue, the release of the former jailed deputy prime minister has caused rattles in the party.

Anwar's guarded statements about his political comeback, while at the same time approving Abdullah's reform initiatives raised suspicion about possible deal between the two. This prompted party leaders who stand to lose by his return to declare the closing of Umno's door for Anwar.

Though the doors are seemingly tightly shut for Anwar to return to the party - at least for the time being - having Anwar on the loose is no less precarious for Umno.

With the prospect of immediate active partisan political involvement looking dim for Anwar - thanks to the Federal Court's decision rejecting his application for review of his conviction for corrupt practice - Anwar is now resolute to pursue reform through the realm of civil society.

At the same time he is resuming the role of a mediator between Islam and the west in the war against terrorism, a role which many observers believe best suits Asia's renaissance man.

Anwar may use this international platform to shore up his profile as a proponent of dialogue as a means of conflict resolution, a staunch supporter of multi-culturalism, democracy and good governance, and a modernist, progressive Muslim committed to peaceful coexistence of peoples of different cultures and creeds.

With his vast connection in both western and Muslim worlds, it is not difficult for Anwar to find avenues to articulate and disseminate his ideas. His call for dialogue and opening up of democratic space, instead of repression and stifling dissent in dealing with divisive religious and racial conflicts may resonate in multi-religious and multiracial Malaysia as well.

Even to date, Anwar's interviews and writings, in which he dwells on the need for dialogue and openness, have been widely circulated on the Internet and in the alternative print media, thanks to information technology.

Such renewed political discourse may help sharpen new battle lines in Malaysian politics, between authoritarianism, ethnicity and the primacy of state-led economic development on the one hand, and democracy, multiculturalism and civil society empowerment on the other.

It is in this vein that Umno has to deal with its internal contradictions. Faced with reverberating demands for more openness, the dominant Malay party needs to execute an arduous balancing job.

It needs to appeal to its traditional constituency, the Malays, while at the same time portraying itself as a party which stands to protect the rights of multiracial Bangsa Malaysia (Malaysian Nation), a role best suited to its position as the leading partner in a multiracial coalition of ruling political parties, the Barisan Nasional.

Should Anwar, civil society and opposition forces be able to augment a cohesive demand for a greater degree of participatory democracy, war against corruption and good governance, Umno will face yet another challenge to maintain its legitimacy.

So far, Umno leaders have been adopting the language of reform - war against graft, improvement of public delivery system, meritocracy and Islam Hadhari - in its legitimacy discourse to encounter mounting pressures for reform and departure from the old regime.

To what extent this will transcend mere lip service depends on how Umno seeks to balance its scale in the face of centrifugal forces in the party, which are still mired with factional as well as primordial interests, and that of the society, which is becoming more multifaceted, with various pushes for democracy, multiculturalism, religious identity, political reform and rapid economic development almost simultaneously.

The non-Malay vote

The task of balancing the scale is even more arduous given Umno's growing dependence on the non-Malay votes in securing its electoral victory. This is best illustrated by ethnic composition of electoral constituencies at present and the 2004 general election results.

Up to the 2004 general election, of 219 parliamentary seats, only 71 are a large Malay-majority, in which Malay voters constitute more than 66 percent of the electorates. The rest are medium Malay-majority, ethnically mixed, non-Muslim Bumiputera majority and Chinese majority constituencies, in which non-Malay votes have important bearing on the election results.

Though in the last general election Umno won 63 of 71 seats in the large Malay-majority constituencies, the contests were nonetheless fierce. Umno polled 60.6 percent of the popular votes compared to the opposition's 39.4 percent in these constituencies.

The battles were more intense as the percentage of Malay voters increased. In 22 parliamentary seats where Malay voters constitute more than 90 percent of the electorates, Umno polled only 51.2 percent of the popular votes.

Umno's spectacular victory, however, came from medium Malay-majority constituencies where only 50 - 65 percent of the electorates are Malays. Umno won all 28 seats it contested in these constituencies and polled 72.9 percent of the popular votes.

Given intense electoral contests in large Malay-majority constituencies and growing importance of non-Malay votes, Umno needs to thread its traditional role as defender of Malay political superiority on the one hand, and the torch-bearer of Vision 2020 and a truly Bangsa Malaysia on the other more carefully.

Internal contradictions as well as external demands are likely to push Umno to oscillate between the two poles almost simultaneously. The recent uproar over racially sensitive remarks by Umno Deputy Permanent Chairman Badaruddin Amiruldin, made during the Umno General Assembly, amidst Prime Minister Abdullah's call for removal of tongkat mentality and emulation of meritocracy as benchmark of success, exactly captures the tensions within the party, and the BN generally.

It is noteworthy that Gerakan, a multiracial but predominantly Chinese partner in the BN, had been pushing for the realisation of Bangsa Malaysia and a truly multiracial party during its annual general assembly held recently.

Umno, the leading partner in the BN, however, is seemingly ambivalent on the direction in which it should move in this respect. This ambivalence perhaps mirrors intricate balancing job that Umno is doing as well as tensions within the multiracial BN.

Piecing the three issues together - money politics, Anwar's release and the unfinished Malay agenda - gives an impression that Umno is really at a crossroads.

The ghost of money politics continues to haunt Umno and at times deprives the party of truly credible leaders who may respond more ably to challenges facing the party. As money, not conscience is more likely to determine the results of party polls, corporate alliances and factional interests take the place of performance and integrity as the main criteria in choosing party leaders.

Meanwhile, Anwar's release, apart from causing rattles in the party and adding complexities to internal power struggle, may galvanise civil society and opposition forces to push for greater reform and wider space for participatory democracy, the same space which is seemingly denied in Umno.

Malays' lackluster economic achievement on the other hand is triggering forces within Umno to push for more concrete affirmative action for the Malays, while shifting the terrain of Malaysia's ethnic politics would likely move the party in the opposite direction.

At this juncture, how Umno and the BN government leads the response to these challenges remains to be seen. In the past, the Umno led government has been quite responsive to external challenges, which partly explains why the party has been in power since the first federal election was held in 1955.

Will internal contradiction and external challenges this time around make the party more responsive, hence managing to continue to survive and thrive, or will this lead to its untimely collapse? This too remains to be seen. For the moment, it is suffice to say that Umno is at a critical crossroads.

MARZUKI MOHAMAD is a political science lecturer at the International Islamic University Malaysia. He is currently enrolled as a Phd candidate in the Department of Political and Social Change, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.