THE son of Javanese parents, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi reached the pinnacle of Umno when he became its seventh president on June 30 this year.
Under normal conditions, he would have been prime minister by virtue of also being the Barisan Nasional chairman.
But BN failed to retain the government after ruling for 61 years and Zahid inherited the unenviable task of keeping the party together and the wolves at bay.
Among the first things the 65-year-old tried to do was to get its lawmakers to sign statutory declarations to remain in the party and promise that the party will be back in business within two years.
Yet less than six months into his presidency, Zahid has had to watch helplessly as Umno members of parliament and assemblymen quit the party one by one until it is now left with 37 from the 54 federal seats it won in the 14th general election.
Added to that is the almost full dissolution of its Sabah chapter last week after four MPs and nine assemblymen quit Umno.
The final straw was on Tuesday night when the Umno president said he was relinquishing his duties to party No. 2 Mohamad Hasan after growing calls from within the party for his resignation.
So, what caused Zahid’s collapse?
International Islamic University Malaysia’s Tunku Mohar Tunku Mohd Mokhtar said: “I think Zahid was unfortunate to take over a party that was demoralised after the defeat of BN in the last general election.
“The party itself is also in denial, believing that it has the support of the Malays. The fact is Umno is a component of Barisan Nasional and while it was the dominant party, it still needed the non-Malay component parties.”
The political science lecturer said many in the party leadership felt that Zahid did not give any clear direction to the party after taking over.
“He wanted to form an alliance with PAS and he also allowed his men to open up discussions with PKR and Bersatu,” said Tunku Mohar.
Zahid surprised everyone in September when he decided to cosy up to arch rivals PAS by attending their annual general meeting.
Although PAS returned the gesture by sending its own delegation to the Umno general assembly, its president, Abdul Hadi Awang, gave it a miss. Also missing for the first time at the Umno gathering was its oldest political ally MCA.
Being the opposition has tested Zahid’s leadership qualities and the calls for his resignation showed that he was not the type of leader who could take followers through uncharted waters.
He also failed to convince the party of its cooperation with PAS.
“And simultaneous ‘negotiations’ with PKR and Bersatu showed that he was still an opportunist,” said Tunku Mohar.
“Apart from attempting back-door comebacks, he has not shown that he can rebuild or try to convince the former components to come back to BN.”
Former Umno deputy Youth chief Senator Khairul Azwan Harun said acting president Mohamad Hasan must now chart a new direction for the party.
“Forget about going into the government coalition for now. Rebuild and strengthen the party first. Also don’t accept those defectors who have deserted the party,” said Khairul.
“We need to relook into the party DNA and strategies to win GE15.”
He said this was a cleansing phase for Umno.
“And hopefully, Mohamad will be able to stop more MPs from leaving.
“But we can’t stop everyone or those who have a personal agenda. Let them go,” said Khairul.
For Khairul, Zahid’s problems were due to the deteriorating support from members after the party elections, his ongoing court battles and the intense factionalism within the party.
“But I must commend Zahid for his big heart. He has displayed exemplary spirit by taking a step back.”
After the elections, Zahid was slapped with 46 charges of criminal breach of trust, bribery and money-laundering.
He could face more charges yet, after anti-graft authorities said on Sunday that they received a complaint against him over alleged money politics in the Umno elections and could commence investigations if the report has merit.
Zahid’s political career began in 1986 when he was appointed political secretary to Najib Razak during the latter’s tenure as youth and sports minister and later as defence minister.
He won his first party elections when he was elected Umno Youth chief in 1996 after winning the Bagan Datuk parliamentary seat in 1995.
Two years later saw Zahid jailed under the Internal Security Act after the turmoil in Umno that saw then deputy president Anwar Ibrahim sacked from the party and jailed for abuse of power.
Then an Anwar loyalist, Zahid was accused of speaking out against Dr Mahathir Mohamad over cronyism and nepotism in the government.
Dr Mahathir, in retaliation, publicised the names of those Malays and Bumiputeras who had received shares and high positions in government-linked companies with Zahid among the beneficiaries.
His political career, however, was unscathed by the political detour and in 1999 and he was accepted back into the Umno fold, but not before blaming the present PKR president Anwar for putting him up to raise the allegations of cronyism and nepotism.
His return from the political brink was complete when he successfully defended the Bagan Datuk seat in 1999.
After winning Bagan Datuk for the third time in 2004, Zahid was appointed deputy tourism minister by then prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
In the political tsunami of 2008, when many of his peers in Umno and BN lost their seats, Zahid managed to cling on to his seat.
His reward was a full cabinet appointment as minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.
In the cabinet reshuffle in 2009, Zahid was appointed defence minister by then prime minister Najib.
After the 2013 elections, he was appointed home minister in a portfolio swap with Hishammuddin Hussein who took over Zahid’s defence portfolio.
His loyalty to Najib and protecting him over the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) financial scandal saw him being appointed deputy prime minister in the July 2015 cabinet reshuffle in place of Muhyiddin Yassin, who was sacked for publicly questioning Najib about the scandal.
Amid mounting calls for his resignation as Umno president now, how Zahid handles this will show the quality of his leadership and that staying in the number one post depends on far more than loyalty and patronage.
Sorry, Zahid, you were never really Umno president to begin with
It’s funny how Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s decision to hand over his duties as Umno president to deputy Datuk Seri Mohamad Hassan is being construed as the “start of reforms” by some within the Malay nationalist party.
Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin described Zahid’s move as “generous”, and called on Umno members to be thankful to the Bagan Datuk MP.
I would describe it as the only course of action left for Zahid, whose sole achievement so far as Umno president has been to co-organise a rally with PAS to oppose an international convention which Putrajaya had already said it would not be ratifying.
Calls to reform Umno have fallen on deaf ears, despite the fact that it has been almost half a year since Zahid beat Tan Sri Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin to win the Umno presidency.
Last week, six Umno MPs quit the party to become independent lawmakers, joining three high-profile names who earlier left to join Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia. There are only 37 Umno MPs left now, down from the 54 after the May 9 polls.
Understandably, there are Umno members (the ones who haven’t quit) who are angry with the party leadership for not taking heed of the GE14 loss, and instead carried on like it was still business as usual.
But here’s the thing. Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was never Umno president to begin with. The sooner Umno members accept this, the sooner they can move forward.
Zahid took over as acting deputy president from Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in 2015, and (at the time) it was only natural that he would be a shoo-in candidate for the party’s top post once Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s time was over.
It seemed straightforward enough. Be patient, take over once Najib steps down and in the process become prime minister.
Except that GE14 happened which meant that this scenario was no longer tenable, and Zahid was left with a party devoid of resources, control or power.
Bear in mind that Zahid had the opportunity to take heed of the GE14 results, and address Umno’s main challenge — how to operate as an Opposition party free from money politics and a warlord culture.
But he failed to do this. In truth, Zahid was Umno president only in name, but never in action.
In his time as president, Zahid had ample opportunity to showcase leadership in Parliament, to challenge the Pakatan Harapan government’s policies, like his colleagues Khairy Jamaluddin and even (yes!) Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan, who seems to be more comfortable as an Opposition MP than he ever was as a deputy minister.
Even Najib, with all the court cases against him, managed to find some renewed purpose as an Umno keyboard warrior, making full use of his presence on social media to criticise the PH government.
Oh, there were some misses but the Pekan MP seems to be getting more hits each day as voters begin to shake off their romantic idea of the PH government.
But alas, Zahid did nothing, has said little, and has not committed to anything closely resembling the word “reform.”
Instead of fixing Umno, what he has done is to aggressively campaign for closer ties with Islamist party PAS, effectively making both parties more right wing than they’ve been in years.
Zahid’s exit from Umno will be no loss for the party, because there never was anything to gain from his leadership to begin with.
Who, then, can stop the bleeding? Perhaps Umno needs to get off its high horse, and take a long, hard look at the dusty mirror in front of it to see what it’s become, and what it needs to be in the future to survive.
It should hold fresh elections, and decide on a leader whose vision and plan for the party is clear. The two immediate choices that come to mind are either Khairy, or Umno Youth chief Datuk Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki.
Khairy can be difficult to read at times but from the way he’s been fashioning himself (as of late), he seems to be genuinely interested in addressing Umno’s weaknesses and to push for fresh faces to lead the party.
And the Rembau MP would be a president who can hold his own in Parliament, and envision a future for the Malay party that goes beyond becoming a jaguh kampung.
If Umno chooses Asyraf, then it is most likely set on a path towards conservatism and closer ties with PAS. Asyraf seems like a decent leader, and is able to command grassroots support but Umno must remember that the road to Putrajaya will not be won via the Malay heartland alone.
PAS’ dalliance with Umno will only leave it confined to the rural states as governing a diverse Malaysia will require the support of all communities. Therefore, whoever is president will need to figure out who to court as allies, and how to attain non-Malay support.
The clock is definitely ticking for Umno. Already, there are “suitors” on both sides of the game, waiting to pick off the remaining Umno lawmakers to add to their own party rolls. On the right, we have PPBM, and on the left, we have PAS.
So, Umno, whatcha’ gonna do when they come for you?
THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT / MALAY MAIL
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