By Khairul Azwan Harun
Pemuda Umno has always played a crucial role in determining the future leaders of Malaysia. It is in Pemuda Umno where up-and-coming thinkers step into their stride. It is here where youthful visionaries develop the values that will guide them.
From Tun Hussein Onn to Tun Razak to Dato Sri Najib, the past chiefs of Pemuda Umno have always progressed to undertake bigger responsibilities in the party system. Each Pemuda Umno era has always upheld its own deeper focus, catered to reflect the public sentiments of the time.
Today, Pemuda Umno institutionally operates to value the diverse opinions that reflect the deeply-layered perceptions that make Malaysia. In this tech-savvy society, no political party can operate if it excludes one or any groups. With social media the speaker for all, we now work between a complex relationship of having to consider all perspectives and yet, still remaining determined to achieve one cooperative direction.
Certainly, there is no topic in Pemuda that doesn’t rumble the house into a whirlwind of debate. We all have our opinions, our own perspectives, and we fight indignantly for those views. Yet debate and inclusiveness of all ideas is only half the process. Beyond everything, each and every member of Pemuda UMNO is dedicated to work towards achieving a unified decision. It is a true test of an institutions maturity if all its members can come together after debate and affirm one solid stance.
With all the speeches, the articles, interviews, and social media posts, what the public doesn’t see are the passionate deliberations, the arguments we have internally, to finally come to an agreement.
The opposition has always argued that they are more inclusive in their representation of races and religions, yet for the most dominant party in the Opposition coalition, DAP, a majority of Institute Darul Ehsan survey respondents believe DAP to be an “anti-Muslim, anti-Malay” Chinese party. Despite all the talk of openness, the Opposition has failed to conceive an identity of a multi-ethnic entity. They are still just a collection of anti-UMNO votes.
Primarily, I believe the failing of the Opposition lies in their handling of inclusivity. The Opposition has always loathe and publicise themselves as the more diverse coalition, but in order to make inclusivity function, one must have a dedicated honour to progress and decisiveness. Yes, you can fight and debate wholeheartedly but at the end you must always put cooperation before any hard feelings, even if it means you must compromise. This is true leadership.
Rather, what we often see in the Opposition is a childish habit of complaining to the public when the internal coalition fails to see eye to eye. They splinter, they childishly refuse to talk to one another. There’s that sense that inclusiveness was just an election ploy for votes and that the crucial ability to work together was never really on the opposition’s agenda.
On a different note, what’s the point of inclusiveness if your members continue to make statements that disrespect other races? Take for example how DAP members have continually outraged the Malay community: Teng Chang Khim and Teresa Kok making fun of the soldiers who flew to fight in Lahad Datu, Tony Pua in February 2014 ridiculing a Friday sermon.
In the latter, it was less of an issue that Pua criticised the sermon – that is his right after all – but more so, the issue lay in the tone of which Pua made his statements, mockingly saying: “I feel so unclean now I might just burn in hell.”
For a Parliamentarian, Pua, you can do better than that, you can be more mature than that. Even if you claim that the Friday sermon bordered around the same tone of ridicule, one wrong does not justify another.
At the Special Commemorative Seminar on Tun Abdul Razak, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein made it plain that inclusiveness and the openness to new ideas had always been an integral part of our nation-building.
Highlighting these noble values in the late Tun Razak, our Defense Minister outlined how “Tun Razak believed that a nation could only be great if it provided opportunities to all its sons and daughters… No one must be excluded. No one must ever be made to feel that they are not welcome here… Tun Razak knew how to spot talent and how to encourage it. He did not feel threatened by new ideas or the enthusiasm of youth. Indeed, he embraced it whole-heartedly.”
The pursuit of Pemuda Umno today to include all within our dialogue and to listen to different ideas, irrespective of their community, is aligned to the views that our founding fathers upheld for Umno.
Today, you will never see Pemuda Umno endorsing a public gathering or social media post that hinges on the extreme, sentiments that encourage hate towards a certain community or that compliment unfounded prejudices.
Everyday I am inspired by the up-and-coming leaders I see within Pemuda Umno today. From all the Exco’s to the Ketua Pemuda I get to visit, I see an enormous talent of youth who think critically, who put forward ideas and perspectives that I would never have considered. Beyond all these traits however, I am most proud of the respect that Pemuda Umno members have for definitive and unanimous decisions. We are proud, but we are never proud to the extent of hindering progress.
Too often today, Pemuda Umno is blanketed by the false idea that we are all yes-men, but just because we come to a united decision doesn’t mean we don’t dispute and debate internally to come to that understanding.
It is easy to dispute and argue, it is much harder to come together and to stand united for a direction forward.
Khairul Azwan Harun is Deputy Leader of UMNO Youth.
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