AS more than 100,000 delegates prepare to vote for the Umno president for the first time in three decades, tonight’s historic debate on Astro Awani could not be any clearer on who they should pick.

Although all three candidates are Umno men through and through, they could not be any more different in what caused the 71-year-old party to lose power.

While 42-year-old Khairy Jamaluddin was candid and honest to admit his mistakes, 65-year-old Ahmad Zahid Hamidi tried to temper his answer by blaming it on Pakatan Harapan’s “non-conventional” approach to GE14.

“I admit my mistake of trying to protect the leadership from and did not convey what the people were saying. And I apologise for failing Umno and Malaysians,” said Khairy, when asked whether it was Umno or the leaders’ fault for losing GE14.

He added that this was the reason why he pledged to end the era of no-contests for the president’s post and to allow internal criticisms of the president if elected.

“The invincibility of the president must end,” said Khairy.

In contrast to that, acting-president Zahid still believed that Umno performed well as it had 46% of the Malay vote.

Although a survey today said that more than 40% of Umno delegates and members attributed its GE14 defeat to former president Najib Razak, Zahid has stood firm against blaming his predecessor.

“Our partners had failed to deliver and only had three seats although it’s a collective responsibility,” said Zahid.

Zahid, nevertheless, quickly moved away from the subject and said there was no point in playing the blame game now.

“We must instead work to empower the grassroots and get their feedback on the election candidates before fielding them. We must eliminate sabotage and boycott elements in the party,” he added.

Rank outsider 81-year-old Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah blamed Umno’s leaders arrogance leading to the elections.

“Some have become too extreme, arrogant and elitist, more eager to show off their wealth than to work for the voters,” said the princely Gua Musang MP.

When Khairy was asked another pointed question about why he remained in Umno despite the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal, he again admitted his mistake.

“Umno Youth had asked for Jho Low to face the Public Accounts Committee in 2015. And we spoke up on it. What we did not do was to continue to question the matter subsequently,” said Khairy.

Though he did not mention who, Khairy confessed that his mistake was to accept the “leader’s” explanation that all was well.

“Moreover, the PAC report said that the then prime minister (Najib Razak) did not commit any wrongdoing. But this was our shortcoming and it’s something that I will have to regret for the rest of my life.

“Many of Umno’s leaders voiced out on it but then we stopped questioning,” said Khairy.

When Khairy was again asked by Tengku Razaleigh about Umno’s loss of youth voters, he again pointed to the 1MDB scandal.

Khairy, youngest of the three candidates, said the party machinery had to carry the weight of 1MDB and that caused their defeat.

“We lost many votes in all the streams, including the army and police votes. We all had to bear the biggest scandal of all. We must not have any more scandals in Umno after this,” he added.

Vision for Umno

Of the three candidates, Khairy again showed that he had more concrete answers compared to the other two.

Asked how Zahid planned to bring back the youth vote, the former deputy prime minister pointed to social media and his “new deal”.

“Empirical studies have shown that 82% of all communication is non-verbal. Social media is used mainly by younger voters and this is where we must show relevancy.

“I also plan to offer them a new deal where we will take their feedback and not block them from climbing the party hierarchy anymore,” said Zahid.

And on bringing back the Malay vote, Zahid felt that Umno only needed to win the “perception” war.

“We need to use more social media and other non-conventional methods that are relevant. We need to do market segmentation. Many now regret not voting for Umno,” said Zahid.

For Tengku Razaleigh, he looked to the past for an answer for the future. Recalling his experiences with first and second prime ministers Tunku Abdul Rahman and Abdul Razak, he proposed more “chances for the youth to learn from the old”.

“I was given the opportunity to do certain tasks under the previous prime ministers and under their guidance I picked up experience,” Tengku Razaleigh answered when asked how he planned to attract younger voters.

“We must empower them,” he added.

Who would you vote for tomorrow?

In the opening exchange, all three were asked what two changes they would bring if they win tomorrow.

Tengku Razaleigh vowed to bring in a “partnership of the old and young” into Umno.

Zahid promised to rebrand Barisan Nasional and strengthened Umno’s fight for Islam, Malay rulers and the Malay language.

Khairy pledged to end the invincibility of the party president and work to become a credible opposition instead of trying to do more backdoor deals to become government again. – June 29, 2018.