Party chief Zahid takes aim at Umno rivals as it deliberates on no contest for top posts

KUALA LUMPUR - Umno president Zahid Hamidi on Friday took aim at his party rivals while indicating that he was open to facing a challenge at this year’s party polls, even as its general assembly began discussing a motion to prevent contests for the top two posts.

Without mentioning names, Zahid – who is also Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister – ostensibly took aim at former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin and former defence minister Hishamuddin Hussein while addressing more than 5,000 party delegates at the annual assembly.

Mr Khairy and Datuk Seri Hishamuddin belong to a camp within the deeply divided party that is expected to mount a leadership challenge against Zahid during the party elections due by May 19. Both of them have expressed interest in contesting the polls, while not explicitly announcing their intentions to challenge Zahid.

In his speech on Friday, Zahid called out a “tortoise” that is only beginning to emerge from its shell – in a swipe seemingly directed at Mr Khairy over his perceived lack of activity within Umno after he lost his 2018 party presidency bid to Zahid.

Zahid also referred to a group of 10 lawmakers from Umno-led Barisan Nasional who had backed rival Perikatan Nasional (PN) chief Muhyiddin Yassin to become premier after the November general election resulted in a hung Parliament – without gaining the party’s collective consent to do so.

“It is disheartening that this was all arranged by someone from our own party,” Zahid said, in indirect reference to Mr Hishamuddin’s role as the key mover in the plan.

Zahid said he had “forgiven but not forgotten” the moves of the 10 MPs, and also warned that action might still be taken against them if the disciplinary board of the party gets the mandate to do so from delegates at the four-day assembly which ends on Saturday.

Zahid had already

sacked or suspended at least three key leaders

from the camp opposed to him before and after the general election for not toeing party lines.

Former premier Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who is Umno vice-president, is also seen as aligned to the camp. On Friday, Zahid said that the party “had paid a heavy price” for its role in helping to

install Datuk Seri Ismail as premier in 2021,

after his predecessor Muhyiddin Yassin lost the parliamentary majority, but he did not go into details.

Zahid also indicated that he is open to facing a contest for the party’s presidency, but said he would respect the Umno delegates’ deliberation on the matter.

Mr Khairy

lost his contest for the Sungai Buloh ward in the general election

and currently has no party posts. Mr Hishamuddin, who is the cousin of former premier Najib Razak, is MP for Sembrong in Johor but also does not hold any top positions in the party.

Mr Hishamuddin said on Friday that he is considering a bid for the top posts should the assembly resolve to allow contests for the positions of party president and deputy president.

Even though Umno’s top leadership did not propose a no-contest motion, Rembau division delegate Mohd Shukri Samsudin put forth such a motion as he began debates on Zahid’s policy speech on Friday afternoon.

Umno information chief Isham Jalil told reporters that the motion has so far been supported by delegates from Terengganu, Penang and Selangor states, along with the women’s wing.

The delegates will vote on the private motion before the assembly ends on Saturday evening.

Following the general election, Umno was in limbo for days while trying to decide whether to back Mr Muhyiddin or Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to become premier as no party

had a simple majority in Parliament.

At Zahid’s nudging, the party eventually

decided to back Mr Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition,

despite having spent years demonising him and PH component Democratic Action Party as Umno’s chief political enemies.

Mr Hishamuddin and several leaders from his camp are seen to be friendlier towards Mr Muhyiddin’s PN, having teamed up with them to form a government between 2020 and 2022.

On Friday, Zahid took aim at PN for trying to engineer “secret deals” with Umno leaders, and said PN could soon have a “court cluster” of its own.

The Umno camp led by Zahid is often referred to as the “court cluster” by critics as many of its leaders have been slapped with criminal charges after BN lost the 2018 election. Zahid himself

faces 47 graft charges.

Last week, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission

arrested a PN politician with links to Mr Muhyiddin

for alleged corruption related to RM92.5 billion (S$28.2 billion) of public funds, and Zahid theorised that this “could only be the beginning”.