New trends brewing with Umno wings’ polls

PETALING JAYA: Umno Youth has a long history of elevating the movement’s number two to the wing’s top job, but that did not happen this time around.

At the wing’s election on Saturday, Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki won the Youth chief post.

Asyraf defeated eight other candidates who included the incumbent Youth number two – vice-chief Khairul Azwan Harun.

Unlike Khairul Azwan, who is a loyalist of former Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, Asyraf is a non-mainstream candidate – he is not seen to be clearly aligned with any camp in the wing.

For political analyst Dr Muhammad Asri Mohd Ali from Universiti Malaya, Asyraf ’s win shows that the grassroots prefer candidates whom they feel can best champion Islamic and Malay interests, even if they are relative outsiders.

It shows that the grassroots want someone with strong religious credentials to occupy the post this time around even if he is not from the mainstream, said Dr Muhammad Asri, who is senior lecturer at UM’s Economics and Administration Faculty.

Asyraf, 42, holds a doctorate in Islamic Banking and Finance and had served as pres- ident of the Islamic Dakwah Foundation of Malaysia (Yadim).

Dr Muhammad Asri said the results also showed that the grassroots generally prefer candidates with strong religious and Malay rights credentials over more liberal ones.

This, he added, indicated that Umno was set to become even more conservative as it tries to rebuild after Barisan Nasional’s defeat in the general election.

It shows that the grassroots feel that Umno’s vote bank and raison d’etre is still the Malays.

They feel that if the party fails to meet the aspirations of its vote bank, then Umno is not going anywhere, said Dr Muhammad Asri.

However, he noted that the grassroots were also mindful of the need to include a number of leaders who could offer new ideas and attract the young.

This could explain the victory of Shahril Hamdan as the movement’s vice-chief.

Shahril may not be seen as someone with religious credentials as strong as Asyraf ’s, but he has become relatively well-known for offering new and reformist ideas to revive the party.

“You have to remember that Umno is going to confront Pakatan Harapan which has many young and vocal leaders such as Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman and Maszlee Malik.

“I think the grassroots realise this and also voted in people like Shahril whom they feel can compete with the progressive and young Pakatan leaders,” said Dr Muhammad Asri.

Like Khairul Azwan, Shahril is also a staunch supporter of Khairy, who is contesting for Umno presidency.

Observers are now asking why Umno Youth delegates voted in Shahril but rejected fellow Khairy loyalist Khairul Azwan.

Is the Umno Youth election results a good or bad sign for Khairy, who will be among the five candidates squaring off this Saturday in the race for the party presidency?

Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Prof Sivamurugan Pandian said it was not clear which of the various teams vying for top party posts benefited from the Umno Youth election results.

“Some may want to see links between the outcome of the Youth polls and the upcoming presidential election, but I think the results are divided on that score,” said Prof Sivamurugan.

He said many delegates voted based on the merits and individual strengths of the candidates and not the team a candidate represented.

This is a departure from the practice in previous party elections where many would vote based on which camp a candidate belonged to.

This new trend, Prof Sivamurugan added, may well extend to this Saturday when delegates vote for their new party president and other top office bearers.