The unofficial role of “racial firebrand” for Umno Youth chief
Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh’s cheap attempt to score political points by attempting to harass a hardware store owner in Kepala Batas under the pretence of “schooling” the latter has clearly backfired.
The Merlimau assemblyman is being investigated for sedition for uploading a video on his Facebook that allegedly perpetuates “hate speech”. While the police did not mention the Facebook video in question, they might be referring to the video where Akmal pressured the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) to speed up the investigation or else anticipate a protest at the store on Thursday.
The backlash towards his bullish antics was immense, with the working relationship between his party and DAP souring with state chapters of DAP Youth calling for their party to sever ties with Umno Youth, and filing police reports against him.
That being said, Akmal remains unfazed with the “commotion” that he has caused within the unity government coalition. This is not his first rodeo after all. Ask Teresa Kok and KK Mart.
His penchant to create racial polemics that threaten multiracial unity in this country poses a question: Is this just an Akmal thing, or is it how Umno Youth rolls? The answer is the latter.
Akmal, in my opinion, merely plays by the unofficial role set by Umno for its youth wing, which appears to dictate that whoever takes on the Youth chief position must act as the “firebrand-in-chief” of the party.
In playing this role, an Umno Youth chief must be able to go further to the right of his party president in speaking on communal and religious issues - even if their rhetoric risks offending the non-Malays.
This role has been portrayed without objection, and very often to the extreme, by Akmal’s predecessors.
......and this role would often backfire, not only for Umno, for Barisan Nasional (BN) as well
The cautionary tales of Hishammuddin Hussein and KJ
Hishammuddin Hussein, who held the Umno Youth chief post from 1998 to 2009, drew public condemnation for brandishing the “keris” at the Umno annual general assembly in 2005 - in what was a poorly executed attempt to rile up the party base.
His action later backfired on the party, as Barisan Nasional lost non-Malay voters in the 2008 general elections. Hishammuddin later apologised for his action back then, but it was already too late, as his action marked the beginning of the decline in BN’s popularity among the non-Malays.
Hishammuddin was later succeeded by Khairy Jamaluddin in March 2009, who held the position till 2018.
The former youth and sports minister, like Hishamuddin, also drew public backlash following his remarks made during a speech at the 2014 Umno annual general assembly, where he said that the non-Malays must do their part and honour the pledges of their ancestors when they were granted citizenship during the formation of Malaysia.
He said that the country’s multicultural society has long been guided by the social contract drawn up between the Malays and the Chinese and Indian communities who opted to take up citizenship.
The remarks were made despite the fact that the existence of the social contract remains hotly contested and that non-Malays are not legally obliged to adhere to it.
Responding to the brickbats from the public that ensued, the former Rembau MP questioned the outrage and claimed that his speech was misconstrued. Sure, Jan.
His actions during the AGM, if anything, further offended the non-Malays, who decided that they had it enough with the party by kicking it out of Putrajaya in the 2018 general elections.
At this point, I believe that the readers would understand how dangerous the Umno Youth’s unofficial “racial firebrand” role is for the race relations between Malaysians, but also for the political longevity of Umno and BN by extension.
It is no secret that Umno’s ''little brothers" in BN - MIC and MCA - are unhappy over being sidelined in the unity government and by their big brother, and are now contemplating leaving the coalition.
Akmal’s recent provocations, if anything, could risk accelerating the departure of both parties from BN. Additionally, his dedication to playing the firebrand would ruin whatever efforts that have been taken by Umno-BN to win back non-Malays' support for them.
Plus, let us not forget how Hishamuddin and Khairy are being treated by Umno at the moment, with the former being suspended for six years and the latter being treated as a persona non grata following his sacking in 2023.
Do we need to remind Akmal about how his career path in Umno is going to end up if he continues on this inflammatory firebrand path, just for the sake of carrying out his duty as the party youth chief?
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