When the honeymoon is over...

This is the first of an exclusive column for The Malaysian Insider by Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed, a 2-term Umno MP for Pulai. He also blogs at www.jazlan.net

By Nur Jazlan Mohamed

APRIL 16 — Let's face it. The honeymoon is over. Barisan Nasional under Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi won 91 per cent of the parliamentary seats in the 2004 elections but only 63 per cent this year.

I thanked Pak Lah last Friday for the opportunity to contest in the last and this elections when nobody else gave me the chance. But I had to say what I had to say when no one else wanted. Just like when he gave me the opportunity.

I was polite. I asked Pak Lah to consider stepping down earlier as prime minister to stop Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah from disturbing the party and our efforts to rebuild the party after our considerable losses in the 2008 elections.

In my mind, only a smooth transition will stop the party from splitting up. And that has to be done sooner than later. Now. Not tomorrow. Not next month. Not December.

The 2008 elections have thrown up one fact. The young voters had determined the results. They are impatient and demand quick results.

In 2004 the young voters were attracted by Pak Lah's promise to be more transparent, eliminate corruption and nepotism and gave Pak Lah a resounding mandate to carry his reforms and to me this was Pak Lah's victory rather than BN. But unfortunately in 2008 the voters thought that Pak Lah fell short on his promises and voted otherwise.

But we cannot blame the voters. They are young and idealistic and we must accept their decision. The young are more attracted to join the other side because they can achieve their objectives faster than in Umno where the institution slows them down. As a result we have young MPs in their 20s representing them and carry the potential of changing the political environment forever.

I do not believe that Umno can recover its historical position in the country and must learn to behave like Golkar in Indonesia where the party is still influential despite a shrinking base of support and no longer politically dominant. Therefore, Umno cannot afford to change gradually when the Opposition has undergone a radical change.

Umno failed to see the ground shift and as a result, BN lost five states, the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, and even had problems with the royalty as they did not agree with the Prime Minister's choice of Menteris Besar in two states.

The PM has been weakened by the rejection of the young voters in the recent elections and a weak PM is not good for Umno.

And Umno is stuck in the old way of solving problems where we believe we Umno is the epicentre of the Malaysian political universe and Malaysia's problems can be simplistically resolved by solving Umno's internal problems first and then only later to solve national issues and the public would obediently submit to our will.

The situation now requires Pak Lah to separate the position of the prime minister and president of the party.

The voters have decided that they do not want Pak Lah as PM by voting against him in the recent general elections. And they do not care about who becomes the president of Umno because they are trying to replace Umno with a new political institution.

The honeymoon is over. There is nagging in the house. We have to solve that. Now.