Veteran Umno leaders upset at move to ouster Mukhriz

Several Umno veterans have expressed their frustration with the move by the state Umno division leaders to remove Mukhriz Mahathir as Kedah Menteri Besar.

The Kedah MB crisis will eventually weaken Umno and tear the party apart, they cried.

One such veteran is Ramli Mohd Yunus, 62, who said Umno has already been losing support from the masses due to the antics of its top leadership, who are mired in various scandals.

Yet, despite the resistance from the grassroots, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak will go ahead with the plan to replace Mukhriz - probably by Sunday - as not following through with it will show the prime minister to have “lost the game.”

“It is not about what the 14 state Umno divisions want. This is Najib’s game,” Ramli (photo), said when met in Alor Setar yesterday.

Najib is often seen as the hidden hand behind the move to ouster Mukhriz, for he is at constant loggerheads with Mukhriz’s father, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

A new menteri besar is widely expected to be installed on Sunday but Najib, as the Umno president, has yet to reveal the identity of the candidate.

The Kedah crisis awakened the northern state after 14 division leaders led by state Umno deputy chief Ahmad Bashah Md Hanapiah publicly rejected Mukhriz’s leadership.

“Mukhriz’s weakness is that he does not have the kind of rapport with the local Umno warlords as his predecessors had,” said Ramli, who has been a party member since 1984.

“Mukhriz did not provide division leaders with goodies or financial aid to carry out activities in their divisions, especially during the Hari Raya celebrations.

“Such goodies were in the past also given to the leaders to hold their division meetings,” Ramli claimed.

Umno fans shrinking

Despite the negative outcome of the Kedah MB crisis, Najib feels that he can win back the support of voters before the next general election, which is due in 2018, Ramli said.

He noted that most party’s supporters are those without education and money.

“They depend on Umno for survival, unlike the educated or the wealthy, or those who are both,” Ramli explained.

“But how long can Najib or Umno do this? This group of supporters is shrinking and fading away.

“Voters these days are very selective, too, and more inclined to choose a candidate with good credentials, education and moral standards.”

Ramli said Najib has yet to address the people with real problems, who are more concerned about how to place enough food on the table, instead of “who is the new MB?”.

Despite his admiration for Mukhriz, Abdul Razak Khamis (photo) wants the son of the former PM to relinquish his post soon.

“We do not want a situation where, if Mukhriz continues to be MB, the people will continue to suffer; with federal funds to the state cut off or delayed,” said Razak, who runs his own business in Alor Setar.

“We do not want this kind of political harassment to continue as the people of Kedah will not benefit,” he told Malaysiakini.

Razak said it is not easy to find a leader like Mukhriz, but if he loved the people of Kedah, he would let go his post, which he held since May 2013.

‘Najib has money and power to ensure victory’

“It does not mean he has lost. People are now more sympathetic towards Mukhriz. He has become a national sensation,” the former member of Pendang Umno division added.

He advised Mukhriz not to battle with Najib, who now has the “money and power” to ensure victory for himself.

“It is no point fighting the PM. You cannot fight someone who has money and power, you can never win, no matter how smart you are,” Razak told Mukhriz.

He went on to propose that Najib appoints Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to be the Kedah Umno liaison chief, while Mukhriz continues to hold the MB post.

“That is, if Najib is interested in maintaining unity in Umno in Kedah,” he said.

Razak described Mukhriz as the ‘future PM’, and callon on him to give way to Najib, shed his ego and await his turn, which would come soon.

Meanwhile, Zaini Yaacob (photo) said Mukhriz should be replaced by someone better than him in terms of character and education status.

“The person should have integrity, like the late PAS Kedah MB Azizan Abdul Razak, who died in 2013,” said Zaini, a former assistant district officer.

“Like Azizan, Mukhriz donates his salary to the Pondok Foundation to help the poor and in terms of education, don’t give us someone who is lower educated than Mukhriz,” the 57-year-old retiree said.

Zaini is aware of the list of names of potential new MBs that has been tossed about.

As a former ADO, Zaini said, he is familiar with the personalities mentioned but does not think they can do better than Muhkriz.

He also implied that Mukhriz may have been fed the wrong information by his current advisers and this led to his downfall.

“If he remains as MB, Mukhriz should sack all his political secretaries. He thinks everyone is nice like him. Mukhriz is very naive,” Zaini added. -Mkini