From Malaysian Insider:

Ku Li reforms:Direct elections for UMNO president, single BN party

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 — Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah plans to turn the Barisan Nasional coalition into a single political party with direct membership and an elected leader if he wins the Umno presidency.

As part of a slew of radical reforms he plans to introduce to BN and Umno, the 71-year-old leader also wants future Umno presidents to be directly elected.

“I am suggesting that BN becomes a multiracial party open to all. Umno members can, for example, be direct members of BN,” he told The Malaysian Insider in an interview.

“As soon as I become Umno president I will propose this.”

Tengku Razaleigh said he would announce at a later date the details of how he planned to turn BN into a single political party, and explain how such a proposal would affect the interest of all component members.

All he would say now was that, under his proposal, BN members would elect their leaders directly.

Tengku Razaleigh has been the only person so far to have offered himself as a candidate for the Umno presidency. He is likely to take on Datuk Seri Najib Razak if Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi decides not to defend the post.

Asked about the kind of reforms he hopes to bring to Umno, Tengku Razaleigh said there should be direct elections at all levels of leadership, including that of the presidency.

“We have three million over members. If we give them the right to elect leaders at various levels we can get rid of money politics,” he said.

“There is a need to democratise Umno. Power should be given back to members instead of being concentrated at the top.”

He said that “when the masses are beholden to the leadership, we will not move forward.”

As a further step to democratise Umno, Tengku Razaleigh said he would also introduce a proposal to allow members from each division to directly select candidates for the general elections.

He also wants to introduce some form of term limit in the party. “Maybe the president of Umno should be allowed to hold the post for eight or nine years at most.”

Explaining the reasons behind the radical reforms he was suggesting, the Umno veteran said it was because he sees “Umno heading down.”

“I do not think Umno can survive the next elections. People are simply going for material gains now for themselves and their supporters. People are becoming more corrupt.

“This is not the purpose of the party. It is for serving the people and it must be in tip-top condition to do that.”

Mr. Razaleigh’s reforms are quite interesting indeed. He must the first prominent UMNO leader who has mooted the idea of a single Barisan Nasional party. Many other Barisan leaders from the MCA, Gerakan and PPP have suggested that the Barisan merge, but Mr. Razaleigh seems to be the first voice from UMNO, the dominant partner in the coalition.

I must say that in a climate where UMNO’s (very blatant) strategy is to convince the Malays that they need UMNO, it takes a brave man to propose reforms such as the ones mooted by Mr. Razaleigh. I simply do not think that the rank and file UMNO members at this present time would ever contemplate, much less agree to such a proposal. Especially since the majority of Malays who support the party are convinced that UMNO is needed to safeguard the Malays. Their arsenal thus far has been Pakatan’s multi-racial stance and for UMNO and Barisan to go the same route would be akin to blasphemy to some of them.

Yet the way forward for UMNO and Barisan must be to merge. Racial politics can only last for so long. If ten years ago most Malaysians thought that the ‘Barisan formula’ of ‘power-sharing between races’ is best form of governance in the country, now we can safely say that around half of Malaysia’s population are willing to forgo racial interests for the greater good of the country.

But Mr. Razaleigh would be very hard pressed to sell his reform ideas to his UMNO coleagues. To many of them, the problem with UMNO lies with its current president. A change of leadership would return the people’s support to them. I do not agree with this view. They are far bigger and more inherent problems within the party that no amount of leadership change can remedy. But it would seem that this fact has escaped many in UMNO.

Maybe Mr. Razaleigh’s proposal for reforms are his way to rejuvanate his bid for the top post. It is widely expected that Mr. Abdullah would not seek re-election as UMNO president, which would mean that Mr. Najib would be next in line. Whilst a contest between Mr. Abdullah and Mr. Razaleigh would have been close, a contest between Mr. Najib and Mr. Razaleigh would almost certainly result in victory for the former.

Regardless of his motive, UMNO needs more people like Mr. Razaleigh, to moot ideas of reform into the party. The members might not buy it as yet, but for the future of the party, hopefully they will one day.

Not that I care much for the party.