The fight for the Wanita Umno leadership has intensified and Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz and her challenger Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil are barely on talking terms.
Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz has not looked this good in years. The Wanita Umno chief has slimmed down and her below the shoulder-length hair also makes her look softer and more contemporary.
She has updated her dressing and looked quite chic in a striking fuchsia pink outfit at the Wanita Umno meeting on Friday.
The former minister looks much younger than her 66 years, which is a good thing, considering that she is hoping to win another term as the leader of the women’s wing.
But if party accounts are to be believed, her rival for the top post, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, has sprinted ahead of her.
Shahrizat’s prospects received a huge boost when Datuk Kamilia Ibrahim, who is Shahrizat’s running mate in the contest, was officially returned unopposed as the new Wanita deputy chief on Thursday.
Shahrizat can now claim the newly-declared No. 2 as her ally and ready to work with her from day one.
At best, Rafidah can only claim that she is willing to work with Kamilia because relations between the two Perakians have been anything but warm despite Rafidah being the Kuala Kangsar MP and Kamilia the Kuala Kangsar Wanita chief.
The reason is that although Kamilia is neither glamorous nor stylish, she is a strong woman who has no patience to play games with the powerful clique around Rafidah.
Just days before nominations closed, some of Rafidah’s loyalists had told Shahrizat point blank to withdraw from the contest.
They implied she would lose because she was associated with the outgoing president and that “everybody will be against you.”
A month ago, Shahrizat would have crumbled in tears at this sort of bullying but since returning from Mecca with her mother a fortnight ago, she has found a new and calmer equilibrium.
Apparently, she just smiled and said: “Who? Me, resign? The fight is on. Win or lose, I will accept it.”
At a Kedah function on Saturday, she had to endure stinging remarks from Rafidah’s allies when they sat down for lunch.
Shahrizat had initially agreed to stay on in her No. 2 post but changed her mind midway and the circle around Rafidah is still angry with her for that.
She sat through the tense atmosphere at lunch without a word. But she had already tasted her revenge before lunch started because when the emcee announced Rafidah and her names at the start of the function, the applause for Shahrizat was much louder than that for Rafidah.
Although the Wanita Umno campaign has been quite contained, there have been very personal attacks behind the scenes.
Rafidah and Shahrizat are barely on talking terms. They meet only at official functions, they have stopped exchanging hugs and kisses and are now limited to formal handshakes.
Rafidah’s earlier edge over her challenger had to do with the perception that the senior circle around Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak felt indebted to her for her role in speeding up the leadership transition.
She had been among those who spoke at a pivotal Umno supreme council meeting, telling the Prime Minister that he had to go earlier than 2010. Since then, Najib’s boys have been reluctant to take sides in the women’s fight even though Najib wants to usher in a bold, new team.
They felt Rafidah deserved some respect for speaking up. On the other hand, Shahrizat had painted herself into the Pak Lah corner by staying silent on the transition issue.
But sources said that Najib is staying above the fray in the contests in the three wings. He feels that for effective leaders to emerge, the political process should be allowed to take its course at the level of the wings so that those who win are people who the ground wants.
Rafidah’s standing received a boost when she was seen flying in several times with the Deputy Prime Minister during the Kuala Terengganu by-election. Rafidah was merely exercising her power of incumbency.
She enjoys support from many of the state Wanita chiefs who were appointed by her.
But as Shahrizat’s people said: “Kepala sokong Rafidah, ekor sokong Shahrizat” (the head or the top is with Rafidah while the tail or the ground is with Shahrizat).
So will it be heads or tails in the Wanita Umno fight?
Unfortunately, the contest is much more complicated than just tossing a coin.
- THE STAR
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