Change of Topic Scare

I am suprised to find that there are not many theses on the United Malays National Organisation Party. Despite the fact that the party has been the de facto ruling political party in Malaysia for more than five decades, there is a scarce collection of studies which focuses  specifically on UMNO as an organisation.

Yesterday I came across a PhD masterpiece which had kept me glued throughout my reading. I was impressed by his language and critical analysis on the party’s political culture based on Panebianco’s analysis of party development.  It was quite an interesting read where he brilliantly weaves the framework with historical chronology of events and cemented with analysis reviews of the context.

I was afraid that the author had extrapolated on Panebianco’s concept of institutionalisation and that probably I might have to shift my topic into something else again. Thankfully, the study had dissected institutionalisation with a different approach and in fact it is a supplementary source for my research.

Currently I am still figuring ways of modifying my institutionalisation model in my case study. Dr M told me that I should look into the concept of legitimacy as the main indicator of institutionalisation. Looks like there is more scourging to do for now. May Allah Give me Guidance, ameen.

Political Structure Influences Political Activities

The opportunities for political activity are structured by community and political structure factors which at least partially determine which kinds of individuals become active politically. However, relatively few of even those individuals possessing ‘favorable’ social-demographic and attitudinal characteristics actively participate in politics.

William E. Wright in the Recruitment section of “A Comparative Study of Party Organisation” (Ohio: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company, 1971), page 102.

The Locus of Malaysian Politics

After 8 years, UMNO decides to make some amendments to its party constitution. The last time the constitution was amended was in 2001 coordinated by Tan Sri Muhyiddin. When Dato’ Sri Najib succeeded the Presidential throne in March 2009, one of the first and foremost party matters that he wanted to address was the UMNO Constitution.

The significance of the constitution is that it is the blueprint of a party’s structural and procedural framework. As in the case of UMNO, it determines the type of people who join the political group, the type of leaders elected and appointed, the forms of policies that the party supports and most of all the course of national history itself.

In other words, the UMNO constitution is the locus of Malaysian Politics. The party constitution generally affects the country in two ways:

i. Leadership

The UMNO Constitution provides a systematic guideline of the party  leadership recruitment process which consists of its do’s and don’ts. The problem in UMNO is that there are the little napoleons who are witty enough to identify the loopholes of the constitution and makes the best of it by maneuvering the flaws for their own elevation in the party’s leadership.

These little napoleons are smart enough to playout each other in wrestling for posts in all levels of the party structure which includes by checkmating the recruitment of new members. This is especially for individuals who seem to be a potential threat to the existing leaders.

Hence, there is a network of hegemony which strengthens their reign in the political leadership but unfortunately it constrains the flow of social power to jst the same group of people again and again. There is a dilemma of the need to retain hegemony and breaking the hegemony too pieces because to some extent, the hegemony is also one of the main causes that the party is still institutionalised. This is because the people in the hegemony hold on to the same beliefs, principles and objectives. However, those people in the general public who do not have the same doctrines are left out leading them to join other parties that appreciate their voices.

The exclusion of the general public from leadership selection in the political party has caused the fermentation of dissatisfactions. Hence, the tumultuous local politics since the recent years.

ii. Policy

The constitution also forms the procedures of policy making in the political party in the sense that it tells you how the delegates to the UMNO General Assembly are selected from the lower levels of the party organisation.

Secondly, the main topics of policy-making are also stated in the provisions of the UMNO constitution. The issues of economy, education, religion and other provides the leadership the voices of the grassroots which shall be considered for integration in national policies. Hence, the political party as a platform of expressing social interests.

Statistics As The Key To Strategy Setup

At any rate, whether they do it in a formal fashion or not, politicans find some analysis of the past election statistics in their distict a valuable means to determine roughly what will happen in the present election and to help outline their campign strategies.

By John W. Kingdon in Candidates for Office: Beliefs and Strategies               (New York: Random House, 1966)

This Scattered Intellectual Journey

Throughout this intellectual journey on understanding political parties and society, I have managed to decipher the sophisticated demographic forces that would influence the political weather and lanscape of a country.

Commencing from the miniscule atomic subject of a political actor to groups,  political party, political system and also governance. Then there are variables to these various microscopic and macroscopic views of research such as institutionalisation, leadership, bureaucracy, issues-based, ideologies, emotional, structural and others.

I realised that I have been too engrossed and inadvertantly succumbed to my greed for knowledge. Along the way, I have swum to all directions and sojourned at unexplored islands. Yet I have not discovered that substantial treasure which will lead to my main objective which is my thesis. I have carelessly derailed from my path of research.

However, I do not regret for these unplanned excavations. I have managed to comprehend the natural laws of politics as a whole. Now I really know how the system works. by reality and how it ought to work by theory.  All I need right now it to stick to the map and keep on digging in just one hole. Deep inside I know that it IS there and  one day I shall reap from my efforts, insyaallah.