However, if the young United Malays National Organization's (Umno) politician jump start his or her career by standing against Tun Mahathir on some issues, this is a very good reason to give attention to this politician and a good reason to understand his or her philosophies. This is what motivated us to carry out this analysis of the role played by Nur Jazlan Mohamad, the young Malay politician who is; like Reuters news agency said is challenging the old guards.

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There is nothing better than the speeches and writings of a politician when we analyze them and their political career. Since Nur Jazlan is a member of Parliament who delivers a lot of interesting speeches in the Parliament, even engaging Ministers and debating on wide range of issues, we can say that he is indeed the political figure that is making great efforts to help bring change in the country.

He believe that Malaysia is still pursuing an old way of thinking about the politics of race and that this should change and talks of 'Bangsa Malaysia', a topic which is by far still very taboo within the Umno.

That could be the very reason why he did not get much support so far in his quest to grab enough grass root support for the party elections in which he is challenging the post of deputy leader in the party.

Nur Jazlan also believe that the ruling coalition, the Barisan National, lost its 2/3^rd parliamentary majority due to the Umno's focus on Malays and Islam, which was indeed given much coverage since 2004 by the Ministry of Information of Malaysia.

By admitting this, he reveals that there is a sense of frustration from the non-Muslims when they see the over tuning of news, events and information on pro-Islamic matters. To us at WorldFutures.info, the heavy focus on Islam is the core of the race problems in Malaysia as it undermines the role played by non-Muslims in the building of a nation like Malaysia. However, it must be remembered that it is this over tuning on Islam that salvaged the Umno and the BN in the 2008 elections.

Nevertheless, Nur Jazlan is sharped tongued and this is proven by the way he tackled the criticisms by Tun Mahathir regarding his own candidacy in the Umno polls of March next year.

He lambasted Tun Mahathir for calling him and other candidates contesting in the Umno elections as 'jokers', meaning people who do not stand a chance. Nur Jazlan retorted back saying: “He (Tun Mahathir) forgot that when he asked Tunku (Abdul Rahman) to resign in 1969, people, too, called him a joker.”

Mahathir ended up as the longest serving Prime Minister of Malaysia and the rest of the crowd was proved wrong. Could it be that Tun Mahathir will be proven wrong this time while Nur Jazlan become a potential candidate for one of the highest posts in the Umno in the future?

The current state of affairs may be against Nur Jazlan who is anti-racist in his stance and follows more the principles of a national democratic leader than that of a closed minded racist politician. In the Umno, one must be very pro-Malay and Melayu minded to get a role to play in the highest spheres of the party's hierarchy. Being pro-Bangsa Malaysia and defending the rights of non-Muslims to get a fairer share of things and coverages does not help Nur Jazlan in his quest for change in the party.

Yet we believe the future of the Umno rests in the hands of rising political figures like Nur Jazlan who knows how to cope with the trends and shed taboos in order to get the country to march on towards a new progressive society. Defending the rights of non-Muslims does not make Nur Jazlan an anti-Islam politician, on the contrary, it shows the magnanimity of the person and the extent to which a Malay politician can catch up with democratic standards to challenge his party's own beliefs on controlled democracy.

The young parliamentarian exposed his beliefs in his many writings and we will put some of these writings and part of the speeches that deals with the current situations in Malaysia here: “The protest votes of the non malays contributed to the poor performance of the BN in the last election. It is apparent that the JASA which is supposed to monitor current trends and issues which affect the voters were caught unawares by the major shift in the support of the non-malays away from the BN,”

“I suspect that the reason is because their activities were mainly Malay centric and focused too much on Islam. That is why they lost touch with the unhappy sentiments among the non-malays,”

“Hence, it is important for the Ministry to refocus the department’s actions towards more programs which are race and religion neutral,”

This was one of his statements made in reply to the Minister of Informations answer to an original query on the role of the JASA in the electoral debacle of the BN.

He may be wrong when he states that democracy is alive and well in Malaysia when he refers to the 2008 electoral victories of the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) since Malaysia is still by and large, way behind on many issues with regards to 'democracy'. But then, these thoughts will surely be sharpened when he sees how other countries uses democracy to the people's favor rather than to the favors of a few.

“Pakatan Rakyat’s substantial gains in the 2008 General Elections prove that democracy is alive and well in Malaysia despite the doubting foreign press,” he said. Yes the foreign and nowadays the local press too is doubting the democratic standards in Malaysia and people like Nur Jazlan must strive to ensure that fairness and equality is the future standards of the country.

Fairness and equality can also be achieved under a democratic system that uses Islam as the model of distribution of wealth and justice and if Nur Jazlan were to adopt Islam as his political principles, he would also see that democracy per se is just a motor while Islam is the true standard.

Nonetheless, he agrees with the two party system idea and a fairer power sharing arrangement in the country, which is again totally against the ideals of the Umno. One wonders why he is still in the Umno but party hopping – though popular nowadays – should not become the norm for political figures like Nur Jazlan.

On the two party system, he says it is a good idea provided that it does not come at the expense of strong leadership.

“Assuming that the two party system in Malaysia would finally evolve into BN and Pakatan Rakyat and both BN and Pakatan Rakyat would operate under its own power sharing arrangement, the rakyat would have to decide on which coalition is more enduring to provide the strong leadership needed on the economy,” he wrote.

“I have my doubts on a long lasting Pakatan Rakyat coalition of parties with widely contrasting ideologies currently held together by Anwar Ibrahim. Can they survive after Anwar?.”

“The rakyat should also ask whether Pakatan Rakyat would be courageous to reform the overwhelmingly Malay civil service, police force, army, and educators without risking a political backlash to them. Bear in mind, the current birth trends predict that Malaysia would have a Malay majority population of 60 percent in 2020,” he added.

In one of the interviews of Nur Jazlan found on his website www.jazlan.net he declares his frustration at the civil service which he accuses of letting down the Umno, the government and the people. He demands strong and concrete actions to force the civil service, hence the establishment, to deliver but he may be faced to the 'elite' Malays who do not want to hear the word 'reform' if he pursues such an interest.

The elite Malays – now rich and powerful – controls the destiny of the government and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is clearly a victim of this elitist group which has nothing else to do but to listen to former PM Tun Mahathir. They listened to him when they curtailed on the push for 'reforms' brought by Abdullah Badawi after the 2004 elections.

This is what Nur Jazlan was surely referring to when he asked whether the PR would be able to reform the overwhelmingly Malay civil service, police, army and education officials.

“What about the question of removing Malay rights deemed and practiced in the constitution? Would the Malays generally give up those privileges easily even though many Malays including myself believe that the Malays should practice meritocracy,

“In my opinion, our forefathers knew that Malaysians needed strong leadership and guided democracy for their political formula to work,” he wrote.

And this is one of the reasons why the PR should be worried about its future plans for Malaysia. It could also become one of the tumbling blocks that could lead to the disastrous break down of the PR with the Party Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) already signalling its intent to retreat from the loose coalition in the event the same Malay rights is 'removed' as Nur Jazlan said above.

He also questions the oppositions strategies, whether in a two party system, the Pakatan Rakyat could win the two thirds majority needed to change the constitution that is deemed to protect the Sultans and the Malays.

“Surely Pakatan Rakyat would want to eliminate the Sultans in its quest to achieve fairness just as the Australians are now thinking to turn their country into a full Republic,” he also said in the article which appears on his web blog.

If Nur Jazlan fails to get nominated for the future party polls, it will crudely because of his open mind and his sharp shooting style. It will then be a worry why the Umno would want to stall the progress of a man of the future if the party want to survive the backlash of anti-racial and pro-democratic young generations of the near future?

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interesting guy
written by observers, October 16, 2008

but is umno the platform? anwar tried n failed. many others tried. only Khairy seemed to have been a new face, tried n made some bucks...but nothing else! He too is doomed to fail in umno!

cuba try
written by kazimahmood, October 16, 2008

I guess Nur Jazlan must keep trying until the umno rejects him totally. As I wrote in the article, he is too different from Umno. The founder of Umno failed to change the track of the party he was booted out...same with Anwar. Nur Jazlan do not a future in Umno unless he puts his head, tail and money all in...with the risk of losing it all! I think he is 'primeministerable' if he joins PR. Maybe he has a better job to do in PKR?

i wonder...
written by doinkers, October 16, 2008

Just wondering out loud if theres possibilty if he's one of the many UMNO ppl who's suppose to crossover. But with the M returning to UMNO, it's like he's never left. UMNO is really like singapore's PAP. They're both reserving the PM seat for their sons.

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