JOHOR BAHRU – In the light of Barisan Nasional’s (BN) performance in the 15th General Election (GE15), Johor Menteri Besar Onn Hafiz Ghazi has called for Zahid Hamidi’s immediate resignation as coalition chairman.

The Johor Barisan election operations director said that Zahid should follow in former prime minister Najib Razak’s footsteps after the party’s election defeat in 2018 and also resign as Umno president.

“This noble move will help us in our first step to recovery and regain the strength of our beloved party Umno,” he said.

“Though a bitter pill to swallow, Umno leaders, including myself, should return to the people and listen to their voices that have been translated through their votes in GE15. Many leaders with potential and calibre in Umno, MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association) and MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress) were sacrificed because we did not listen to the grassroots.

“We should all have the courage to change the course of the party’s future,” he said on Sunday, one day after BN won just 30 parliamentary seats in the election.

Datuk Onn Hafiz noted that Umno has “collapsed” under the Malay political tsunami, where the community has “rejected Umno”.

“Barisan and Umno only won nine parliamentary seats in Johor, while none of the parliamentary seats in Perlis, Kedah, Penang, Melaka, Kelantan and Terengganu went to us,” he added.

Zahid won by a razor-thin 348-vote majority in Bagan Datuk, a seat he has held since 1995, and his closest rival, Datuk Seri Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin from Pakatan Harapan, has called for a recount.

Johor BN chief Hasni Mohammad, who won his contest in Simpang Renggam, expressed surprise at the coalition’s performance in Johor, where it won nine out of 26 seats.

He discovered that first-time youth voters had supported other parties, and not BN, local media reported.

“We take note of the situation, and we will change how society views the party,” he said. THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK