TJ Penting Sahaja:

Pengulas: Man Kubur

Hishamuddin dihantui oleh beberapa isu:

1. Peristiwa letak ambil jawatan Aziz itu menempelak Hishamuddin juga kalau dikaji sebetul-betulnya.
   
   

2. Prestasi merosot sukan tanahair - baik di Sydney atau kekalahan kepada Doha untuk Sukan Asia. Beli adalah Menteri (tidak gembira) Beliau dan (kegagalan) Sukan Negara.
   
   

3. Hishamuddin juga sedang dibayangi satu cabaran dari bekas ketua bahagian nya sendiri di Tenggara Johor, Asmaon Ismail. Dia mungkin parah jika ditentang.
   

4. Hishamuddin naik pun kerana Zahid yang terautomatik terpinggir akibat kes Anwar dan ehsan menjadi anak bekas Perdanan Menteri. Gambar beliau memegang botol arak itu nampaknya bukan penghalang untuk menjadi pemimpin dalam Umno. Tetapi kini ia telah memabukkannya sehingga bercelaru pemuda jadinya.
   
   

5. Prestasi Hishamudin tenggelam jika dibandingkan dengan peranan pemuda sebelumnya yang 'hebat-hebat' belaka di mata umno. Beliau kekal kerana ngam dengan kehendak presiden yang tidak mahu pemuda berwajah singa. Wajah kucing menyenangkan program presiden berjalan dengan lancarnya...
   

6. Hishamuddin tidak rapat dengan akar-umbi. Dia lebih dekat dengan presiden dan sesuatu yang berada di luar negara. Pernah nama beliau di 'boo' bila disebut dibeberapa ketika dalam perhimpunan umno,
   

7. Walaupun prestasi beliau merosot, dia muncul sekali sahaja di Lunas. Selepas itu beliau ke Brisbane untuk bergembira dan membiarkan Aziz terkial-kial dan geram dihantui gambar Aziz sendiri mengherdik Suqui.
   

8. Hishamuddin juga dibayangi ooleh perletakkan jawatan s/u sulitnya Abdul Latif Endut atas sebab-sebab yang tidak diketahui. Begitu juga s/u politik beliau, Hasni Muhammad, yang nak ditukar dengan Azmi Daim.
   

9. Oleh itu Hishamuddin dinasihatkan melupakan sahaja debat dengan Mahfuz. Dia perlu berdebat dengan kemelut dalam dirinya, partinya, dan peranan yang perlu dimainkannya dimasa depan.
   

10. Riwayat hidup sekor kucing tidaklah lama.... Apa lagi kalau singa yang lapar sentiasa ada....... Bila itu berlaku berbotol-botol arak pun tidak akan dapat mengubat luka. Menangislah seorang diri terhiba.
    

    
    

Sumber: AgendaMalaysia

9th December 2000

The Perils of Hishammuddin

By Rozaid Rahman & Rehman Rashid

Datuk Aziz Sheikh Fadzir's feinted resignation as deputy chief of Umno Youth dealt another body blow to the tottering leadership of Datuk Hishammuddin Hussein, the movement's leader. Although Aziz was quickly persuaded by Youth exco to withdraw his resignation, the episode only highlighted that Hishammuddin faces trouble everywhere he looks - at his division, Youth, the centre; even at his federal Ministry of (unhappy) Youth & (unsuccessful) Sports.

In Umno's Tenggara Division in Johor, of which Hisham is division chief, talk is rife that ex-divisional leader Asmaon Ismail is preparing to challenge him. Hishammuddin is rarely seen in his Division, and Asmaon's potential challenge may presage a scramble for divisional positions early next year.

At the national level, meanwhile, Hishammuddin's early luck seems to have run out. Coming in from out of the blue in 1993 to secure himself a position on the Youth exco with the highest number of votes cast at that year's electoral party assembly, Hisham seemed to glow with the aura of his illustrious ancestry, as the son and grandson of past party presidents, including the first Umno Youth chief. Yet, his youthfulness seemed to catch the imagination of Umno Youth.

Three years later, after just one term on Youth exco, Hisham declared an intention to bid for the wing's Number Two slot. Then in line for that position was Datuk Fatah Iskandar, a key aide to then Umno Youth Chief Datuk Zahid Hamidi. But Hisham was allowed to mount his challenge, and won. Zahid subsequently appointed Fatah the movement's information chief, which had been Zahid's own position under the previous Youth administrations of Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Tan Sri Rahim Tamby Chik.

Zahid came off badly in the leadership crisis sparked by the Anwar Ibrahim affair, and resigned as Youth chief. His place was automatically taken by Hishammuddin, who was duly confirmed in it at last May's party assembly.

However, Hishammuddin's apparently effortless cruise to high office has been more curse than blessing. He is viewed with cynicism by those who see him as having been kept in office because no one dared deny the party president's choice. Hishammuddin's critics say he measures poorly against his predecessors. Unlike Zahid, Rahim, Najib or Anwar, Hishammuddin is somewhat estranged from Youth members. An upper-class urbanite, he is ill-at-ease in the rural political environment of his party's grassroots. His unpopularity was manifest at last month's party assembly, when the mere mention of his name drew loud jeers from the delegates.

Party insiders concede that Hisham may be attending more to his ministerial duties than party activities. However, they see the recent Lunas by-election as having been an opportunity for him to have arrested his declining ratings by showing up to campaign for the Barisan Nasional. In the event, it was another lost opportunity. Hishammuddin made but a single appearance at the scene, on the eve of polling day, before leaving the job to his deputy Aziz Sheikh Fadzir and decamping on a quick trip to Brisbane, Australia.

Aziz subsequently found himself at the down-and-dirty losing end of the Lunas election campaign, as the ultimately victorious Opposition featured him graphically in a poster depicting his belligerence against Chinese educationists over the Vision Schools proposal.

Hisham's problems have been compounded by the recent resignation of his private secretary, Abdul Latif Endut, for reasons unknown, and the impending replacement of his political secretary, Hasni Mohamad, with Youth information chief and Umno Supreme Councillor Azimi Daim. It is considered unusual for a member of the party's Supreme Council to be delegated political secretary to a minister.

Given all this, Hishammuddin is being advised to forget about his much-anticipated debate with Mahfuz Omar of Pas, who has just been released from a month in Kajang Prison, and debate with himself the future of his own party, and his place and role within it.