KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 — Umno could go into the 15th general election operating on a shoestring budget as its clout diminishes in an increasingly fractured political landscape that is forcing political donors to hedge their bets by funding other parties, according to Straits Times.

Citing prospective donors, the Singapore newspaper reported that funders who had been supportive of Umno are now inclined to back some Opposition parties on the belief that no single party is expected to win a majority of seats in the next election.

"Money will go to both sides because the outcome is so uncertain," an unnamed chief executive of a Malaysian publicly listed company that has long been aligned to Umno was quoted as saying.

The chief executive was among several other business groups that said they are now inclined to spread some of the funding to opposition parties as a hedge because they expect the new government will be formed with unlikely coalition partners.

The paper also reported that Umno leaders have admitted that the party's divisions and branches nationwide have been struggling with their finances after the Umno-led Barisan Nasional lost its six-decade grip on power in the 2018 general election.

"Raising funds is definitely one of the top challenges for the party leadership and under the current circumstances, the coming election will be a frugal affair," Johor Umno deputy chief Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed was quoted as saying.

New political groupings, such as the youth-led Malaysian United Democratic Alliance, are also reported to be wooed by business groups and vested interest parties seeking to cosy up with upcoming politicians whom they expect could wield influence in the future, ST suggested.

Since the 1990s, the Malay nationalist party's makeup has changed to an organisation dominated by businessmen, rather than civil servants and teachers.

That, in turn, gave well-positioned Umno leaders, particularly the president, the power to control the patronage process through the creation of political slush funds disguised as businesses, such as 1MDB, that funded the party's activities nationwide. - malaymail