There are rumblings that moves are afoot to mobilise the rank and file of Umno to petition its president to step down. Apparently, there is an anonymously penned letter being circulated to each member laying out the grounds as to why the Umno membership has lost confidence in its leader. The reasons are telling. They are:

(a) The role played by his son-in-law Khairy Jamaludin and other members of his family in the administration of Umno;

(b) The role of the ‘Fourth Floor", the moniker used to describe the PM’s aides, linked to Khairy, in the administration of the country;

(c) Abdullah’s alleged willingness to dance to the tune set by Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew; and

(d) Rising crime in the country and the fact that many criminals managed to escape conviction because of poor morale among police personnel. The morale problem was caused by constant criticism by the government.

Is it just me or does everyone else also see the elephant in the middle of the room? One thing is not for debate - the writer of the letter is obviously oblivious to the presence of the elephant.

If the letter writer thinks, and the Umno membership accepts, that these are the reasons why almost half of Malaysians voted against BN, then politicians from the PKR-DAP-PAS (increasingly referred to informally as Barisian Rakyat) coalition should sleep easy. Come the next election, more people will join the calls for change.

As much as there is general disaffection relating to points (a) to (c), these are merely noises and side issues. Point (d) is laughable and demonstrates the depth to which Umno as a polity has sunk.

No, in my view, the top five causes for Umno’s defeat are as follows:

1. Uncontrolled and blatant corruption (read PKFZ)

2. The rising cost of living without a corresponding rise in wages

3. Racism of Umno (read keris episode and tearing down of temples)

4. Arrogance and hypocritical attitudes of Umno politicians (read Ali Rustam and Khairy Jamaluddin’s overall behaviour)

5. Pak Lah’s apparent ineptness and sleepiness

Pak Lah, as prime minister, must of course bear responsibility for all of this for if he were a stronger leader, he could have put a stop to 3 and 4, and followed through on his reforms to check point 1. Point 2 comes from his unwillingness to break the monopolies/oligopolies of the importers and distributors of the core consumables, the high road tolls levied by the concessionaires, and his unability to relook at how petrol and gas subsidies should be deployed – ie by offering tax credits to the lower income group only.

Point 5 is a personal point and the least he could do is to be prepared for his official engagements and have another cup of espresso to stay awake. He doesn’t and Mahathir who is 14 years his senior and having undergone two bypass operations looks and sounds more sprightly and focussed.

If one were to look into points 1 to 4, one can see that these are issues which are all tied to Umno, its involvement in business and subjugation of the civil service to achieve this end and its inability to countenance any dissenting views, whether from within or without. To solve these problems, Umno must revert to being a political party committed to the happiness and freedom of the people it purports to represent, and not just be its warlords and elite.

It must be committed to running this country according to the rule of law and not diktat by fiat. It must be committed to the equitable distribution of the national wealth to eradicate poverty (regardless of race). The fact that the Malays are oft quoted as still being the largest group living at or being just above the poverty shows the utter failure of Umno over the last 40 years since the NEP came into being.

It must also cut of itself from business. In this age of globalisation, leave business to the marketplace. After all, the Umno-backed entities of Renong, Bank Bumi and Tajudin Ramli’s TRI have all failed miserably. And finally, it must countenance that by the time our golden or diamond merdeka anniversary comes around, racial politics must be a thing of the past and it must heed the call of its founder and first president.

So whether Umno wants to keep its president or not is a matter for its membership to decide but if the membership thinks that this will solve their problems, then they should all go and get a cataract operation because they still can’t see the elephant in the middle of the room.