Kuala Terengganu By -election

The Kuala Terengganu by-election has gone and went, signalling another defeat for Barisan Nasional and another victory for Pakatan Rakyat. While many celebrate PAS' 2,631-vote victory over Umno, what happened on Sunday doesn't make the political pathways of Malaysia any clearer.

Pakatan did not win the Kuala Terengganu by-election. They displayed all their hallmarks, of course, like campaigning panache, the grassroots-touch and good old hard work, but in essence the Barisan Nasional lost it. The latter had more on stake going into the by-election and the ramifications for it will far outstrip the boost the Opposition gets.

For Umno, it is the clearest sign that its trumpeted change of leadership is emphatically not what it needs to lift itself from the doldrums. There is a school-of-thought, very popular in the party, that holds Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi responsible for all its ills and it imagines that removing him will make all the ills besetting it go away. They're the deluded ones- the problem Umno faces goes far deeper than that. It's about people.

The noble party of Merdeka is full of people who put their personal ambitions and aggrandizement above the wellbeing of the party and the country. This is accentuated by the long drawn out party campaign period, which has brought out the worse in money politics.

At the same time the impending accession of Najib Razak as the party President has dazzled the members. They feel that he – and he alone – can and will restore the party from its present 'funk'. They feel that he has the secret ingredient which will allow them to continue as before – lobbying for contracts and hanging out in hotel lobbies smoking expensive cigars.

Unfortunately this is not the true. Firstly, no one man can single-handedly transform a party of over two million members. The party President will need a team alongside him to lead and then bring about root and branch reform and I'm still waiting to see the emergence of this ground-breaking 'team' – a team that will restore the semangat and passion to the political machine. Umno needs a complete overhaul, not a cosmetic leadership change.

But is even this monumental shift really enough? The Umno and BN brand has taken such a beating as of late it seems that it seems like they can do nothing right by the public. That is what decades of autocratic and inflexible leadership has done to Malaysia's ruling party- it's a sign of how wrong the direction the coalition has taken is when even genuine attempts to reform or rebrand it are looked upon with scepticism or even outright disdain.

To put it simply, Malaysians are fed up with their nation's grand old party's not-so-grand-way of doing things. Consider the message by which the latter tried to woo the former with during this by-election, in fact, any election: 'money, money, money, veiled threats and more money'.

It was vintage Barisan: therefore hopelessly flawed and out-dated. I am willing to claim that they could have had the best candidate possible and they still would have lost on the same platform. Malaysian's just aren't willing to stand there patiently, receiving the benefits of development (which as citizens is theirs by right anyway) and trading their meek submissiveness for goodies. Sure, they'll take the money (they're not stupid), but that doesn't mean they'll vote accordingly.

So, what do they want? Again, this has been gone over time and time again. A Government that looks out for its people and not for a few elites. One that listens and doesn't simply bulldoze its way using the punitive powers of the state to get its way. A leadership class that can put forward a progressive and inclusive agenda rather than resorting to stirring up communal sentiments or the ugly side of our nature when the going gets tough.

As I said earlier, these are things we have the right to expect as citizens. But what have we gotten instead? The Kuala Terengganu horizon is littered by prime examples of the countless bizarre projects across the country – projects that may have seemed like a good idea at the time only to languish and fade over the years as the initial enthusiasm for their construction and usage dimmed and then in certain cases – just disappeared.

All of these remind the townspeople and their fellow Malaysians of the lavishness with which others – principally outsiders – have spent Terengganu's rich oil revenues. It's staring at them right in the face- and it's making them angry. The stronger this anger grows, the faster Umno and Barisan's luck runs out.

It remains to be seen whether or not the party leadership even realizes this is an issue, or their reasons for seemingly not doing anything if they do. The ruling coalition remains strong- that cannot be denied- but the by-election has shown that even this vast reserve, like the oil, is finite. (By KARIM RASLAN/ MySinchew)