Can win-ability save Umno?

KUALA LUMPUR - To their Umno and MCA patriarchs, Datuk Mad Aris Mad Yusof and Michael Tay are small fish. One is a former assemblyman while the other is only branch chief.

But their small significance in the party is in inverse to their public profiles. Mad Aris is a four-term, undefeated assemblyman of Chempaka, in Selangor. His last winning record was in 2004, where he got 6,055-more votes than the PAS candidate.

Tay, meanwhile, has fashioned a reputation for being the “Michael Chong” of Johor MCA. He appears almost every week in newspapers where he highlights cases that the cops, local councils and even “wakil rakyat” can’t resolve.

Despite storied service records in their communities, both have and could again be passed over as election candidates of their respective parties. But this could change if Umno president and Barisan Nasional chief Datuk Seri Najib Razak has his way.Najib wants the BN parties to choose candidates based on their ability to win in an election. The approach sounds logical and simple enough but in actuality hits at the core of how BN parties function.

At least for the past 30 years, candidates have always been chosen among a party’s senior middle-ranking officers. Either the division, deputy or vice-chiefs or the leaders of their women or Youth wings.

Can Najib win over the Christians with Vatican visit?

KUALA LUMPUR - When Datuk Seri Najib Razak meets Pope Benedict XVI today, he will be hoping to win back Christian backing for Barisan Nasional (BN), but analysts say it will take more than a papal audience to convince sceptical Catholics and Christians.

They said today that the prime minister must rein in the right-wing elements of the ruling coalition and prevent further harassment against Christians by his own administration.

The prime minister will call on the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Rome today in talks to establish diplomatic ties. The visit follows several incidents that have heightened religious tension in Malaysia.