UMNO today holds what is called a special general assembly to amend it's constitution, an exercise proclaimed as making good promises made by Datuk Seri Najib Razak to "reform UMNO." That pledge was made when he took over from Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi some seven months ago. Results of the 8 March 2008 general elections made Najib promised what he promised.

He wanted to "right the wrongs of UMNO." There are many, of course. A major problem is in contesting for positions in the party and the way party polls have been run. To party veterans, party polls "used to be OK in the old days." Until Dr Mahathir changed it all. Tun Dr (then Datuk Seri) put in place certain "terms and conditions" surrounding party elections after his bitter battle and close victory over Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah for the presidency in 1987.

He had his reasons of course. Rightly or wrongly. When Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became UMNO president the "terms and conditions' were still there. Perhaps one of the reason for Pak Lah being blamed for the ills of UMNO was that he did not do anything to rectify the "terms and conditions" of the party polls. In short, he let it be. But then, many if not all UMNO leaders including the current crop had benefited from the "terms and conditions" they are now opposing and seek to change.

One of the main complaint or grouse was the quota system for nomination of candidates vying for posts especially top positions in the party. (It started with bonus points for the post of president and deputy president and later fine tuned to be the quota system).

Let's not go into specifics. Suffice to say the system which was part of the "terms and conditions of the UMNO polls have always been seen as giving unfair advantage to incumbents and imposed restrictions to would be challengers. Just look at how Tengku Razaleigh, after the 1987 big UMNO fight, could not muster another big fight. Some see it as he was prevented from taking a shot at the presidency.

It was simply because he could not get the right number of nominations from the divisions. Again the reasons for such a failure were or are many. All we have heard of before. But all deemed legal if you go by the party constitution. The irony of it is, such a polling system, everyone in UMNO say, also gave birth to money politics.

Anyway UMNO has now decided to amend its constitution. Hence today's special assembly. A committee was formed, chaired by Hishamuddin Huseein, UMNO vice president, to, well, look at things. And today they table the proposals.

The main amendment we are told would be the abolition of the quota system. Meaning everybody can contest top posts. Everybody was happy when the leadership gave such an indication. But then Hishamuddin was later quoted as saying there "will be some conditions." Those who were happy earlier were happy no more. Back to square one they said.

Sensing trouble brewing, Hishamuddin responded by saying it would be just a minor thing. He cited an example. UMNO he said would not want people who became member today and take a shot at the presidency the very next day. Or something to that effect. Thus he said certain conditions must be in place to prevent that.

However, critics say, if someone whose UMNO membership is only one day old and still want to contest the presidency, surely,he will not be voted in.Why not let the members decide, they ask. It would be interesting to see what would be the final proposal being tabled today.

What ever it is, it would make sense if the amendments to be made are described by UMNO as efforts to make UMNO polls more democratic. But then there are UMNO leaders who say the amendments would rid the party of money politics (read corruption).

Their logic is this. By having polls for top posts at divisional levels you widen the election base, i.e. more people would be voting. Meaning the good folks contesting who have the habit of buying votes cannot afford to pay everybody. Surely nobody's that rich. Meaning there's just not enough money to go round to take care of a long electoral roll. That's one so called school of thought.

Another is of the opinion that by allowing anybody and everybody (including the rich) to contest, more money will be available from various sources for the purpose of vote buying. And of course there are many other opinions, theories and analyses from experts within UMNO. All can be heard right now in hotel coffee houses and the corridors of PWTC in Kuala Lumpur where UMNO leaders and members alike currently gathers.

Which brings me to remarks said to have been made by PKR's Azmin Ali following Tan Sri Isa Samad's victory at the recent Bagan Pinang by-election.

Isa as we know was convicted of money politics in UMNO, but he still won big in Bagan Pinang. So to Azmin, UMNO does not have to do any reform. In other words UMNO do not have to worry about money politics anymore. They can still win anyhow. Azmin was being bitter? Maybe. Sarcastic. Definitely. But could he also be right? (By MOHSIN ABDULLAH/MySinchew)