I bet, like a melodious song, that question keeps playing in every UMNO member’s head, including politically-concerned Malaysians like me who are in silent hope of seeing the party’s wake-up.

Even during the yearly UMNO General Assembly recently, that question seems finding no daring answer.

When the Negeri Sembilan’s opposition leader and also the state’s former chief minister, Mohamad Hasan, officiated the party wing’s assembly, I was there as a special observer.

The night’s event was full house. Thousands of members including their beloved leaders congregated. It was, if I may say, like a ruling party’s assembly.

UMNO, without me being doubtful, still remains a domestic political party that has outstanding numbers of audiences.

Like the unforgettable old days in the 80s and early 90s, Michael Jackson’s shows had never been frustrated by poor attendances.

But if the King of Pop still alive today, will he be boisterously clapped for performing his old dances and songs? I don’t think so.

Having mammoth audiences or members doesn’t even assure voters’ acceptance to the party that was once deputy-presided by Anwar Ibrahim.

The United Malay National Organisation must be possessing a well-liked menu that can pull voters’ trusts back.

Even in food and beverage business, a restaurant or cafe won’t be sustainable if it keeps serving same-old-taste meals for years.

In any business, even in modern politics, sustainability can only be earned when you can offer uniqueness and greatness to each of stakeholders.

Being sustainable and long-durable is impossible if people are still being performed with the party’s unchanged traditions and beliefs.

UMNO will still be respectful and hopeful if the party can be captained by a visionary leader who has finesses of rerouting the party’s direction.

Muafakat Nasional — a yet to be formalised political affiliation of UMNO and PAS, should not just be made a bypassed formula of re-winning defeated seats in elections.
Instead, UMNO, currently an opposition party, must be a solution-driven political entity that can realistically present executable economic solutions to please multiracial voters.

In this challenging decade of globalisation, economy is an indispensable key to unlocking the aim of being a well-built nation.

Standing roaringly with shouts like “Hidup Melayu!” can’t feed poor Malays who have been economically suffocated.

Tok Mat had said in his officiating speech that night that UMNO must be led by a figure who “knows when it’s day and when it’s night”.

What did the party’s deputy president really mean by that?

From my interpretation, the phrase means the party’s leader must be cognisant of doing right things in the right time.

Of course in politics, a top leader of a party has to be adequately relevant in offering relevances in this current era of supply and demand, which both of them must be aligned with favourable substances.

And the favourable substances must be fitting the voters’ inconsistent and heterogeneous wishes.

Voters won’t accept things political parties do that are not felicitous.

Politics is like music. People no longer listen to old slow musics that make them boring and sleepy.

People will choose to play songs that are trendily-melodious to their ears and moods.

Like in politics, how could you convince voters, especially intellectually-minded youths and urban professionals, to vote your party when its leader keeps jamming the same old-school songs when the audiences are mostly trendy millennials and Generation Z?


* Amerul Azry Abdul Aziz is an independent writer who now views politics as something that can be researched.

**The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of Astro AWANI.