Kuala Lampur, April 23 -- Umno turns 100 in 2046, and there's every chance if it heads the federal government then Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar is prime minister.

Of course, if in 1961 someone posited Mahathir Mohamad will be PM 20 years on and repeats the act in his nineties they'd be laughed off to a mental health facility.

Barring deaths, here's how the leadership clubhouse would look like in 2046. Anwar Ibrahim is 99, Zahid Hamidi 93, Mohamad Hasan 89 and Hadi Awang 99.

The leadership vacuum in the horizon.

Which is why staying in the race is far more critical than having clever things to say in the interim. The last 80 years of national politics instructs this, almost too cruelly. The battle is one of attrition, not talent.

Forty...