Grassroots or Umno warlords: who matters more to PM?

 

Delegates at the Umno general assembly last March.

PETALING JAYA: Two political analysts are in disagreement on whether it’s the Umno grassroots or the warlords of the party who matter more to the prime minister.

Azmi Hassan of Akademi Nusantara says the grassroots hold more sway, but James Chin of the University of Tasmania’s Asia Institute says grassroots support matters only in party elections.

Azmi told FMT the grassroots could put pressure on division heads, who “may or may not be party warlords themselves”.

“The party grassroots play a critical role in pressuring the prime minister through the division heads,” he said.

Azmi Hassan.

He pointed out that Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s push for the 15th general election to be called immediately and his fierce opposition to working with Bersatu were in line with calls made by the grassroots at the party’s annual general assembly.

Chin sees the support of MPs as vital for the prime minister to remain in the post.

“You can be a really unpopular person, but if you have the support of the MPs, you can still stay as the prime minister,” he said.

“I will argue that the grassroots are important only during the party elections, not so important for an Umno PM to survive.”

Umno Supreme Council member Isham Jalil recently said that no prime minister, whichever party he belonged to, could remain in office without the support of Umno’s grassroots.

James Chin.

Isham cited former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad as an example, saying he was removed from office after Pakatan Harapan’s 22 months in power because he was disliked by Umno’s ordinary members.

He said the same applied to Muhyiddin Yassin, who lasted 17 months.

Azmi disagreed with Isham’s take on Mahathir.

Mahathir’s tenure, he pointed out, was cut short due to the Sheraton Move in 2020 orchestrated by Bersatu. That resulted in BN, Bersatu, PAS and a rebel PKR faction joining forces to topple the PH government.

However, he said that in Muhyiddin’s case, Umno’s grassroots played an indirect role in his short-lived tenure as they backed the move of 14 Umno MPs who retracted their support for the Bersatu president. - FMT