COMMENT | Is Umno-Baru worth saving?

COMMENT | Umno will turn 75 next month, but you'd be hard-pressed to say anything good about its role in nation-building.

Once a symbol of Malay unity, the party, which previously dominated Malaysian politics for 63 years, has now descended into a metaphor for pointless political point-scoring and internal squabbles, and more importantly, left a nation with a mixed legacy.

We may have a larger quantity of more wealthy middle-class Malays, a relatively good health system, at least in the urban areas, infrastructure which has significantly improved our lives, set against a background of racial intolerance, religious discrimination and extremism - with little thought for nation-building or a multicultural rakyat in the 21st century.

Is Umno-Baru worth saving? For many, including Malays, Umno-Baru is a party that symbolises corruption and abuse of power.

So, what have we learnt from the last year? Or even the past 30 days? Former and current stalwarts of Umno-Baru, such as Muhyiddin Yassin, Dr Mahathir Mohamad - the PM for life, Azmin Ali - the spanner in the works, the convicted criminal Najib Abdul Razak, prime ministerial hopeful Anwar Ibrahim, Zahid Hamidi - desperate to escape his charges, are all vying for a top position and some relevance...