Artikel yang disiarkan dalam News Straits Times hari ini (sila ke laman web berikut : ttp://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/articles/20mainn-2/Article/index_html atau baca di bawah) sesungguhnya cukup banyak maknanya.
Para pemimpin UMNO di negeri Kedah umumnya dan Kuala Kedah khasnya perlu berhenti sejenak dan bermuhasabah diri.
Semua orang tahu bahawa antara punca utama kekalahan UMNO dan Barisan Nasional di Kedah dalam PRU 12 yang lalu adalah disebabkan perpecahan yang berlaku dalam UMNO itu sendiri.
Orang UMNO sebelum ini masing-masing berlumba-lumba untuk mengejar pangkat dan kedudukan, harta dan kesenangan. Lobi melobi, cantas mencantas, fitnah memfitnah menjadi dijadikan amalan. Mereka yang berkelayakan ditolak ke tepi dek kerana lebih mementingkan diri sendiri daripada kepentingan parti....
Riak, sombong, bongkak , perasan , bangga diri - lebih sinonim dengan UMNO. Begitu juga amalan rasuah, politk wang, nepotisma dan kronisma. UMNO yang dulunya gagah membela nasib bangsa dan agama, kini tidak lebih daripada platform untuk segelintir golongan elit untuk mengisi poket dan perut mereka. Rakyat semakin dilupakan, tanggung jawab terus diabaikan....
Kini masing-masing berlumba-lumba untuk kembali menawan hati rakyat. Masalahnya pendekatan yang diguna pakai masih belum menepati ciri-ciri dan kehendak orang ramai. Khidmat dan wang yang dicurahkan lebih merupakan 'publicity stunt'; dan bukannya lahir daripada kejujuran dan keihklasan....
Pemimpin UMNO mungkin lupa atau pun mungkin juga tidak sedar bahawa rakyat masa kini lebih bijak untuk menilai yang mana kaca, yang mana permata. Cerita-cerita lama tentang kehidupan dan perjuangan UMNO masa lalu tidak lagi boleh dianggap tiket untuk menawan hati masyarakat sekarang khususnya golongan muda.
Rakyat inginkan pemimpin yang mahu boleh memperjuangkan nasib mereka dan bukannya mereka yang hanya pandai menabur wang dan janji semata-mata. Pembangunan bukan lagi boleh dijadikan moto untuk menarik mereka..
Lihat saja apa yang berlaku di Kelantan . Kata mereka - " Orang BN / UMNO bagi wang, ambil ; bagi rumah, ambil ; bagi beras , ambil..; bagi apa saja pun, kita ambil.... Bila pangkah... mesti pangkah PAS !"
Kedah sememangnya berpotensi tinggi untuk kekal di tangan Pakatan Rakyat. Setakat ini, masih belum ada isu yang cukup mencabar atau mampu menggugat kestabilan mereka.
Hakikatnya UMNO dan Barisan Nasional masih terus bercakaran sesama sendiri. Tugas sebagai pembangkang tidak dipedulikan sebaliknya pemimpinnya masih lemas dalam persengketaan dalaman. Kini telah hampir 20 bulan telah berlalu, belum ada tanda-tanda atau jalan penyelesaian yang bakal tiba...
Mungkin TPM datang tepat pada masanya. Orang UMNO Kedah perlu digerakkan daripada tidur yang lena. Jika masih belum sedar lagi selepas ini, mungkin sudah tiba masanya UMNO terus tidur untuk selama-lamanya.....
Petikan daripada artikel : In Kedah, Umno must come together or suffer - oleh Zubaidah Abu Bakar :
NST 15.11.2009
THE internal bickering has to end before Kedah Umno can think of unseating Pakatan Rakyat in the state, writes ZUBAIDAH ABU BAKAR. THE name of the action plan is "Strike" and Umno will be using this strategic initiative to form the Kedah government after the next general election.
The regeneration of Kedah Umno, although a little slow, has given birth to this strategic plan to serve the party until 2013, when the next general election is expected to be held.
The plan is about Umno remaining relevant in the state which has produced several national leaders, including former prime ministers Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Kedah Umno leaders figured prominently in national politics, with several of them serving as cabinet members, especially when Dr Mahathir was prime minister.
Wresting back Kedah, despite the relatively steady state administration led by popular Pas leader Datuk Seri Azizan Razak, is possible considering the long and influential role played by Umno in the state.
There is, however, one perennial problem that needs immediate attention -- disunity among the 15 divisions that hinders smooth and effective implementation of these initiatives.
Being a highly-politicised state not short of prospective warlords, Kedah's political leadership badly needs to settle problems among the various factions.
The strength of Kedah Umno has always been the division chiefs, not the chairman of the state liaison committee.
Before the present state of Kedah Umno came into being more than a decade ago, many division chiefs had become ministers, deputy ministers and parliamentary secretaries.
Those were the good old days, the days of Umno's supremacy.
It may have come as a shock to Kedah Umno but the writing was on the wall before the green tide of Pas swept across the state on March 8 last year.
Pas won 16 state seats, the DAP one and Parti Keadilan Rakyat four. The PKR representative from Lunas has since become an independent.
Hence, the Kedah Umno warlords, unused to not wielding power in the state administration, were slow to adjusting to the new political balance of power. But the brooding is over. It is now time for action.
As Kedah-based political analyst Professor Mohamad Mustafa Ishak says, Kedah Umno leaders have to make it happen now that they know what they want to achieve and what action to take.
"They first have to be magnanimous to everybody because if they become election candidates, they cannot win without the support of the opposition in the party."
Mustafa, a professor of politics and international studies at Universiti Utara Malaysia, adds: "This has been proven time and again."
Division chiefs not having full control of their divisions is the main factor for Umno's defeats in electoral contests, not the strength of Pas.
Internal bickering, in varying degree of seriousness, is a problem in most divisions.
Local Umno observers say only five divisions are spared this malaise. It's not an unusual situation for a division chief not seeing eye to eye with his deputy or others holding positions in his division.
The situation now is that not only are the division chiefs facing internal opposition, but party vice-president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal, who has been entrusted to head Kedah Umno, is also suffering the same problem.
In what appears to be an attempt to rally support to remove Shafie, a report containing allegations of wrongdoings of the rural and development minister found its way into the hands of divisional leaders just before the recent Umno general assembly.
There was also no sympathy for a new division chief when he was attacked in cyberspace for arriving for the launching by deputy prime minister and Umno deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin of the new tagline "BN Menang, Kedah Senang" ("BN wins, Kedah Prospers") after the event at Sekolah Agama Yan on Friday.
Kedah Umno can become strong again, drawing strength from both current and veteran leaders like Tun Daim Zainuddin, Tan Sri Sanusi Junid and Tan Sri Osman Arof, who surely are willing to contribute if their assistance is sought.
Failing to consolidate and unite may find Kedah Umno ending up like its counterpart in Kelantan.
Kelantan Umno has ended up as a weak opposition in the state assembly because it had, despite the many changes in leadership, failed to unseat Pas which took control of the state in 1990.
Prime Minister and Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who visited Kedah in July, is aware of what is happening on the ground and had ticked off state divisional party leaders for jockeying to become election candidates rather than resolving their differences.
His message to the division chiefs and Umno's 14 state assemblymen was simple: shape up or be shipped out.
Not wanting Kedahans lagging like the Kelantanese, Muhyiddin, at the launching of the tagline, expressed concern over the incapability, particularly financial, of the current Kedah government to continue with the projects planned by the previous BN-led state government.
The people of Kedah have to bear the consequences, said Muhyiddin.
Kedah Umno leaders and members need to get together if they are to take on a re-vitalised Pas which has been strengthened after it came into power in the state.
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