UMNO's Da Vinci Code(s)

The UMNO race is now on, it seems, according to Malaysiakini’s Muhammad Razif. Among the major contestants is Khairy Jamaluddin. The impetus for his mad rush up UMNO’s ladder has been the question of his PM father-in-law's longevity as the President of UMNO.

Because of this uncertainty, many have predicted that Khairy Jamaluddin wants to nail down an UMNO vice presidential post real pronto before Badawi leaves the scene. It's traditional that only a VP can move up as the deputy president of UMNO and become the DPM of Malaysia as well.

So long as daddy-in-law is still around, Khairy would find no difficulty ascending the rungs to the upper echelon. In fact, many had made (or had to make) way for his express passage up. They know which side of the bread is buttered.

But that big umbrella for Khairy may possibly not be around for long. Badawi may retire for a variety of reasons – health, lack of popularity, etc. Also, it’s rumoured Khairy is an impatient man who has already declared he wants to be PM by 42, which is just 13 years into the future.

The author of the article seemed to accept that Najib will be PM after Badawi, thus fulfilling the Malaysian prophesy that the nation’s PMs would carry names, which spellings start with the respective letters in the word RAHMAN, the name of the first PM Tunku Abdul Rahman.

Well, if the RAHMAN code (eat your heart out, Dan Brown) holds true, then after 1st PM, we should have PMs whose names would be spelled with 1st letters of A-H-M-A-N.

The 2nd PM was A-bdul Razak and he was followed by his brother-in-law H-ussein Onn. Incidentally today’s UMNO Youth’s chief Hishamuddin is the son of PM Hussein and thus the nephew of the 2nd PM, Abdul Razak, which makes him the cousin of Deputy PM Najib. We’ll discuss Hishamuddin in a while.

If the prophesy was to have grounds to be believed in, then the 4th PM would have a name that starts with the letter M. Guess whooooo that might be?

Yes, none other than our Dr Mahathir – so far so good. Hmmm, what comes after M in RAHMAN? Looks like an A.

Everyone including Mahathir thought that would have been Anwar. It shouldn’t be strange that Mahathir thought so – afterall he arranged for Anwar to be parachuted into UMNO’s top echelon, and anointed him as the Chosen One.

OK, it would have been and it could have been Anwar, but it wasn’t. So to continue along the prescribed path of the prophesy the next PM after Mahathir should still have a name starting off with A. Just in case anyone doubts that, he came with two A’s – Ahmad* Abdullah A Badawi.

* apologies to AAB for getting his name incorrect and thanks to MENJ for pointing out my error

The last letter in the prophesy is of course N, conveniently for Najib.

Just a few steps back, apparently as a compromise to appease Khairy (and daddy-in-law), UMNO Youth chief Hishamuddin has already vowed to leave his post to make way for the young man. Hishamuddin has decided that if he has to vacate the chair of the Youth Chief, he might as well go for one of the 3 VPs posts. Afterall, he has the pedigree - Dad was PM No 3, uncle No 2 and cousin the next one.

But hang on, young Khairy now wants a different post, a VP instead of the UMNO Youth Chief’s position. Gossip in the inner circle of UMNO suggests that Khairy is working out another deal with his Youth boss, Hishamuddin. He wants Hishamuddin to abandon his vow to vacate the Youth Chief's chair and remain as Youth Chief while he, Khairy Jamaluddin, leaps frog over him into contesting one of the VP positions.

Khairy wants to be an UMNO VP so that when Najib moves up one notch, Khairy wants to keep close formation with the 6th PM into the No 2 chair.

More tomorrow as I read the 2nd part of Muhammad Razif’s revelations. But I was wondering if UMNO goes by prophesies for Malaysia's PMs, the only way for Khairy to become one would be to adopt KTemoc's name to ensure a K comes after a completed RAHMAN.