[Rencana ini tidak sempat diterjemah.. tetapi tak mengapa. Pejuang reformasi pandai belaka rasanya....ia mengisahkan konfrontasi Wanita Umno VS Putri Umno. Ia umpama seorang pesakit gigi yang serba salah bila berjumpa doktor gigi. Padahal jarang yang mati, kalau ada pun yang pengsan atau lari.... - Editor]

Source: The Singapore Straits Times

25th January 2001

Old-new clash within Umno

The delay in deciding on the structure of Puteri Umno, the new women's wing, is symptomatic of the party's struggle to attract votes of the young

By Brendan Pereira

MALAYSIA CORRESPONDENT

BRINGING change to Malaysia's ruling party is far from a walk in the park.

Take the case of Puteri Umno. After seven months of behind the scene manoeuvring, Umno's highest decision-making body has yet to decide on the structure of the new wing aimed at attracting 1.9 million young Malay women into the fold.

In a snapshot, this episode illustrates the clash between the opposing forces of new and old in a party that needs to move forward to be in step with a younger and more educated voting population.

By the time the next general election is held in 2004, up to 1.5 million new voters could be added to the country's electoral rolls.

Anecdotal evidence and an analysis of the recent by-election in Kedah suggest that most of the younger voters are opposition supporters.

In a bid to attract young women, Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his deputy, Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi proposed the idea of Puteri Umno.

Miss Azalina Othman, a lawyer who appointed to the Umno Supreme Council, was asked to prepare a working paper on this new wing.

Her brief was simple: be guided by the constitution of Umno Youth - the wing for men aged up till 40 that had been established for years.

Her end product contained inflammable material.

She said that younger Malay women could not identify with the more matronly image of Wanita Umno, headed by Malaysia's Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz.

The word makcik which conveys negative imagery of an old and less sophisticated person was used to describe the members of Wanita Umno.

The report also proposed that Puteri Umno be a separate entity from Wanita Umno and that the head of the new wing be given the status of a vice-president in the party.

Almost immediately, the report was shot down by the established women's wing.

At a closed-door session, line after line of the report was dissected and dismissed.

With almost one million members, the party leadership could not afford to alienate Datuk Seri Rafidah and her friends.

After all, they form a significant part of the party machinery that campaigns house to house for votes in the run-up to elections.

Dr Mahathir and his deputy heaped praise on the contribution of Wanita Umno and expressed regret that the word makcik had been used to describe them.

One matter became clear - the setting up of Puteri Umno was a fait accompli. The only issue was its structure.

So for the last few months, the battle between old and new has been fought over a single issue - the age limit for Puteri Umno.

And the battle has been vicious with snide remarks being made on both sides - about the political ambitions of Miss Azalina and the girth of Wanita Umno leaders.

Datuk Seri Rafidah believes that only women aged between 18 and 30 should be allowed to join Puteri Umno.

But many people feel that the age limit should be 25 and below because those are the kids that we need to get close. Those in the universities, colleges or who just entered the workforce, one respondent said.

Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad, a newspaper columnist, wrote in Mingguan Malaysia that there are about 1.9 million women aged between 19 and 39 that Umno needed to engage.

If the party Supreme Council decided to accept Wanita Umno's suggestion, Puteri Umno will be restricted to fishing in a smaller pond, he argued.

And if Umno fails to engage those who are aged between 31 and 40, be assured that group of women who fall into this age group would link up with another political party, he warned.

This debate is likely to continue and the behind the scene campaigning will get more intense.

Bringing change to Umno is certainly not a walk in the park.

In some ways, it is like a visit to the dentist - the patient knows that the tooth has to be extracted but only heads for the chair when the pain becomes unbearable or persuasion works.