UMNO becomes a liability to PH, time for Zahid to go
UMNO was the only party from the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition party to contest in the polls following the decision by MCA and MIC to pull out of the elections
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 14 – The once mighty UMNO is now on its knees following a drubbing at the polls which witnessed six states holding elections to pick state leadership on Saturday.
In fact, the party touted to be oldest in the country, is now a liability to the Pakatan Harapan (PH) ruling coalition after it only managed to win a paltry 19 seats from the 108 seats it contested in the six states.
Malay voters who used to be the party’s fixed deposit deserted UMNO at last Saturday’s elections and much of the debacle is blamed on party upper echelon namely its president and Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
It must be noted that UMNO was the only party from the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition party to contest in the polls following the decision by MCA and MIC to pull out of the elections. BN formed a pact with Pakatan Harapan, made up of PKR, DAP and Amanah after the 15th General Elections in November 2022. This had to be done as PH on its own lacked the simple majority to form the government after the general elections.
One of the reasons for MCA and MIC to pull out of the polls is said to be Zahid, who had bulldozed a list of candidates to contest in the polls.
X’Klusif learnt that MCA and MIC were given two and one seat respectively while all the other seats available were taken up by UMNO. This caused the two parties to “boycott” the polls, although they had vowed to support all candidates put up by Pakatan Harapan.
These two parties saved themselves from embarrassment with their pullout decision and the decision to stay out of the polls was indeed a blessing in disguise for the two parties.
“Zahid gave the reason that MCA and MIC will only be allowed to contest winnable seats. He told MCA and MIC that all seats contested by UMNO are winnable thus the reduced seats for these two parties but now UMNO has to suffer alone, and it deserves it,” a MIC leaders told XKlusif.
But now UMNO is not only a liability to BN but also a baggage for the ruling PH, led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
If Anwar allows UMNO to continue as it is, then the nation might be looking at a different Prime Minister after the next general election expected in 2027.
Zahid’s UMNO has also made PH coalition members namely PKR and DAP uneasy as seats might be lost because of its alliance in UMNO.
It is time UMNO changed its current leadership, namely Ahmad Zahid and there are already calls for this to be done at the soonest.
The alarm bells are not false or a hoax. It is very true.
UMNO did not perform as expected in the Malay belt made up of Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu. It only won one seat in Kelantan and were faced with a wipe out in Terengganu and Kedah.
It also won two seats in Penang and Selangor respectively and 14 seats in Negeri Sembilan.
The lack of Malay support for the ruling PH is a cause of worry not only for UMNO but also PH and Anwar who were hoping for UMNO and Zahid to deliver.
UMNO’s drubbing is now mainly attributed to Zahid and there is now pressure on him to vacate the UMNO top post for the sake of the party.
UMNO’s fall from grace is largely said to be due to Zahid’s baseless confidence that Malay’s would back the party at the polls.
Zahid’s leadership, if nothing is done by UMNO, has the potential of leading UMNO to oblivion and wiping it out from the political map of the nation. – XKlusif
