Did you know it only cost RM2 to be a member of UMNO.
A relative of mine is a member of UMNO, and that is what he told me about the fees. Pay it, and I’m officially a Pemuda UMNO, the youth wing of Malaysia biggest political party.
Wait! I never filled any form or pay any fees as I do not know the privileges or advantage of being a Pemuda. But I have to bear in mind that UMNO should be seen as a platform to express struggle and plight of the Malays. Much Malay struggle has been seen with UMNO in the scene; from gaining independence, establishment of universities, setting-ups of MARA and pooling of ready-to-use funds for small entrepreneurs.
Do I have to sacrifice my RM2 to qualify myself in showing respect, love and faithfulness towards my nation and race? This is not a trivial question. Once you join UMNO, you are in the game, your fledging nationalistic spirit will be channeled towards things that matters. Your sweat soak the skin due to following orders from leaders that seems to felt how much Malays needed that helping hand. Our ancestors which may have their deepest trust in UMNO (some may choose SABERKAS? PKMM?) had walked several miles under the scorching hot sun just to assist the anti-Malayan Union poster printing. Our ancestors may have ridden the bicycle from deepest region of kampongs to attend rallies.
If we, the current generation of Malays failed to realize the importance of UMNO and keep it relevant, then, the previous generation tiring walk and bicycle rides may just be nothing but just plain tiring.
But that is 1950s. Time had moved on and we are now living in time of One Utama can make your leg feel numb. In a generation where Louis Vuiviton has opened its boutique in Kuala Lumpur and the word ‘Allah’ has been a subject of debate for Christian usage. Malaysia has become somewhat a safe and fun place to live. And regional nationalistic are things easily to disregard, dropped into the rubbish bin for something much more flexible like liberal thoughts. Do not get shocked, if gay rights advocate already existed in the heart of this populous and ever-urban Klang Valley. Today, people who speak about being idealist nationalistic are labeled as close-minded people. In the 1950, gay rights activist may have themselves killed and bodies thrown into the river.
Why thrown into river? Are Malays bunch of uncivilized lynching mob ruling society? One word, every man has its breaking point. Things like bumiputra concept and the Sultanate, if anyone within this crowded highway infested Klang Valley felt its cool and safe within the liberal-minded neighbourhood to point out it is the Malay Achilles heel and ploy to throw acid and cause hurt on it while laughing like a SpongeBob square pants; does it sound these people had bad intentions?
No. Under the pretext of equal rights and freedom, acids are allowed to be thrown at bumiputra concept and Sultanate. They might be regarded as heroes which life struggles awaits movie-adaptation by some indie mop-like haired director, when people like me may just be another homo of Utusan reading and TV3 watching man.
Truthfully, I would want to be a Pemuda UMNO and strengthen it from inside, but, what are the odds of me bringing something fruitful when money are the grease that keeps UMNO running? Its ashamed to be part of UMNO nowadays, its much more ashamed to leave UMNO when its weak.
I reserved my decision about Pemuda. If Khairy Jamaluddin, the son-in-law of incumbent oh-so-clean UMNO president is the role model of next generation Pemuda, perhaps he might just picked up too much negative vibe. Yet, its UMNO blessing to have Oxford graduate as one of its leaders. Opposition party, as usual, they talked about Khairy as being “man with right university, wrong mindset”
If UMNO is a taboo word for you, perhaps, we can talk something else.
A television channel usually gained its revenue through airtime advertisement. Now, they seem to diversify through initiation of websites and carnival. Yet, airtime advert seems to be their prime source of stable revenue.
The problem with free-to-air commercial television station is to keep their advertisement short. Audience would have complained or shift channel once there are too many advertisement to watch. Losing viewership rating means losing popularity thus having low penetration rate, chasing away prospect advertisers. TV station had to balance things out, with each year, rebranding themselves with announcement like “10% lesser advertisement” to entice audience. While, on the commercial side, the TV channel kept convincing prospect advertisers about innovative advertise-on-air, advertising through sponsorship, website advertising etc. etc.
If wastage, corrupt and marking-ups amongst UMNO itself has become very critical, rampant and beyond repair, perhaps, UMNO leadership should consider things like balancing up. Vote buying is of course non-existent for commercial TV station added with reliable no-stake owed audit body. Yet, political party like UMNO should have known that thing can get really tricky when too much money rolling within its members yet votes from rakyat showed that they are losing ‘viewership’
When too much money used to grease the party, UMNO member ‘vote-value’ may varies greatly to a rakyat ‘vote-value’. I might as well remain as an affiliation-free rakyat.
Come to think again, if free-to-air TV station made us wait with their commercial, why not we do the subscription-based channel like Astro? They reduce the ads by charging certain fees to its audience? Can UMNO ‘model’ itself to be less government contract-reliant by pooling resources from its 8 million over members? Just like Obama collect money from his supporters to fund his campaign?
Looking at our economic strength, and the caterpillar money-hungry mark-up champion member of parties (not all), it seems like UMNO is far-far away from being a ‘commercial-free’. UMNO still had to do that balancing act of grease money and winning favors in-tandem.
