A CONVINCING CASE FOR AN UMNO VICTORY

The opposition has a plan it cannot account for, while BN implements real transformation, and invests in the long term

THE campaign for the 14th General Election has begun, with its contending narratives clearly fleshed out. All this was apparent on Wednesday when Khairy Jamaluddin stood at the lectern, delivering what may come to be remembered as one of his sharpest Umno General Assembly speeches since he won a hard-fought campaign to become the party’s Youth chief nearly a decade ago.

The choice between the opposition and Umno, Khairy argued, was a choice between “misplaced nostalgia and false hopes” against “real transformation”. Regardless of where you stand on the political fence, it is difficult not to at least partially agree with this sentiment.

Since the Mahathir-Anwar alliance was formed, Pakatan Harapan has drastically reinvented its political narrative.

Gone were the vitriolic salvos against the former prime minister. Instead, the coalition, whose

was once to make Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim the prime minister, was now putting the man who put him in jail on a pedestal, with promises to bring Malaysia back to the good old days of the 1990s should the opposition be voted into power.

In a remarkable turn of events, the man, once dubbed

is now being paraded as a Charlton Heston-like figure who will bring us deliverance.

It is in this context that Khairy told the audience that misplaced nostalgia only offers us political poison. Consider the mountain of losses incurred during Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed’s time in office: inequitable development policies that neglected areas outside the Klang Valley, especially Sarawak and Sabah, not to mention the erosion of our democratic and royal institutions.

As the opposition found out in a recent Mahathir-Kit Siang forum in its stronghold of Petaling Jaya, these are just some of the many examples from Mahathir’s chequered past that will continue to be brought up not only by Umno, but also their own support base as GE14 nears.

And, who can blame them? If these are the hallmarks of an ostensibly gilded age, then the electorate ought to be worried.

Now, a point to be made is that beyond the political salvos, the economic arguments forwarded by Khairy were particularly sound, as he described the competing visions of Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional as a choice between wanton profligacy versus credibility and prudence.

On one hand, you have a party that has a plan that it cannot account for. On the other, you have BN, which manages the situation the best it can today, and crucially, invests in the long term.

These differences — Goods and Services Tax (GST), subsidies, tolls and the like — are well documented, but it is in the longterm aspect of Khairy’s economic pitch which proves to be compelling, offering us a glimpse of what he believes to be the crucial battlegrounds of the future.

His emphasis on the need for a new social agenda, Malaysia’s very own New Deal is of note, even today.

While some items on BN’s current budget were exciting, it would be good to include more policy items to help the socially excluded, those cut off from activities that define normal life for most Malaysians, such as work, school and family life.

This is important. Without access to these levers of social mobility, we risk leaving well-meaning Malaysians behind.

More needs to be done to give Malaysians a chance at a better life. To provide them with fairer access to opportunities. To strike deep at the root problems that breed social ills: parental support, rejuvenation of neighbourhoods — an approach to drugs that focuses more on rehabilitation measures.

You can’t take a attitude to the situation. The government has to address the problem.

Ultimately, by clearly outlining these differences, Khairy has fulfilled one of the cardinal rules of electoral pitches: it is themes, not policies, that win elections — as Hilary Clinton came to discover when she was defeated by Trump.

Of course, themes without policies lack substance, but policies on their own are a drab. Often, policies change with time, but the values that drive them do not.

This commitment to a certain and dignified economic future was a vital component of Khairy’s speech. Hopefully, Khairy’s pitch becomes a main feature in the next manifesto.

It is now up to the Malaysian voter to decide at the ballot box.