Umno chief Zahid wants alliance with PM Anwar to continue, but some dream big after by-election win
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Umno leader Zahid Hamidi is expected to stress to party delegates the importance of sticking with PM Anwar’s governing alliance.
PHOTO: BERNAMA
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KUALA LUMPUR – Umno chief Zahid Hamidi can walk with a spring in his step in the last few days after his party wrested back a seat
While Umno was seen as having a 50-50 chance of taking back the Nenggiri seat, the huge margin of victory shocked everyone as it delivered the worst-ever loss for PAS in a by-election. Up till then, PAS had trumped Umno in a series of by-elections and state polls after the 2022 general election.
During the two-week campaign in Malaysia’s Kelantan state, Umno leaders did not see the need to call in help from its ally Pakatan Harapan (PH), led by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
And the subsequent victory has led the party’s leaders to claim that Malays and other voters have returned to supporting it again, with the win coming just ahead of the party’s annual general assembly in Kuala Lumpur from Aug 21 to 24.
“With this mandate, we celebrate with humility and realisation that the struggle is still long and the effort to restore the people’s confidence in Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) will continue,” Datuk Seri Zahid wrote in a Facebook post on Aug 18.
Umno is a member party of the BN coalition, one of the organisations under Datuk Seri Anwar’s “unity government”.
Umno won by 3,352 votes in Nenggiri, with 14,560 ballots cast and a 74 per cent voter turnout.
Its candidate Mohd Azmawi Fikri Abdul Ghani secured 9,091 votes, or 61.3 per cent of the valid vote. His rival Mohd Rizwadi Ismail, who contested under the PAS flag, received 5,739 – or 39.7 per cent – of the votes.
The Straits Times understands from several party sources that at the four-day Umno meeting, Mr Zahid is expected to stress to the 6,433 delegates the importance of sticking with Mr Anwar’s governing PH alliance in the coming Sabah state polls, and into the next general election due by December 2027.
“He will definitely talk about the Nenggiri by-election and the determination of Umno in protecting Malay interests through government policy... He may touch upon Umno’s position in the unity government,” a confidante of Mr Zahid told ST on the condition of anonymity.
The issue of working with PH is quite contentious within Umno because a member of Mr Anwar’s four-party alliance is the Chinese-led Democratic Action Party (DAP), a faction scorned by a swathe of Umno members.
Working with PH, which has 81 seats in the 222-strong Parliament, has rewarded Mr Zahid with the deputy prime minister’s post, while other Umno leaders hold full or deputy minister positions. The Umno-led BN has 30 MPs.
However, the credible victory in Nenggiri – a rural state ward with some 20,000 voters – has led some Umno leaders to dream big, harking back to the days when the Malay nationalist party was the predominant party and not a mere kingmaker.
There is an undercurrent of sentiment among some Umno leaders that the party should aim to lead the country again, said the Zahid confidante, who is not authorised to speak to the media.
“Umno’s dominance, including gaining back the prime ministership, still prevails in delegates’ mentality,” said the party source. “PH was absent in Nenggiri, yet Umno could secure victory alone. The main message is if the Chinese, the PH vote bank, do not come out, we can rely on our own strength to win,” said the official.
Johor Umno local leader Bastien Onn said the slogan, “No Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), no DAP”, on the campaign trail was one of the reasons Umno won in Nenggiri. “The Malay belt wants to send a message: If you don’t bring DAP and PKR leaders... we will vote Umno,” he told ST.
PKR and DAP, along with Parti Amanah Negara, are key members of PH.
There is another by-election coming up, this time in Johor’s multiracial state seat of Mahkota on Sept 28, with an Umno candidate slated to contest. The seat is up for grabs following the death of its lawmaker from Umno.
Datuk Bastien said DAP needs to prove it can bring in the Chinese votes for Umno. “As the incumbent in Mahkota, Umno enjoys support from Malay villagers and the army camps... In Johor, I have not seen any DAP grassroot leaders do programmes with us in Malay areas... (there is) no relationship building.”
There have been intermittent calls from Umno for PH to drop DAP from the ruling alliance, with the aim of attracting more Malay voters.
But Sunway University political scientist Wong Chin Huat said Umno cannot expect PH to ditch DAP, which has 40 MPs, almost half of PH’s 81 federal lawmakers.
A topic that could be raised by Umno delegates at the party assembly is for them to switch to supporting the opposition Perikatan Nasional (PN), which is led by the Islamist PAS and pro-Malay Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia.
Professor Wong said joining PN would be worse for Umno than working with PH. “If Umno tries moving rightward from its current position by playing up Malays’ anxiety, it would face the ‘Malay unity’ trap. To join PN in Malay unity means Umno would be eaten alive by PAS and Bersatu,” he told ST. This is because Umno, PAS and Bersatu all depend on the same Malay Muslim votes to thrive, and Umno has the weakest image among them.
Not all Umno grassroot leaders agree with the “go solo” proposal. Melaka Umno local leader Firda Ayu Mohd Zubir dismissed the idea of Umno contesting on its own as a narrative being put out by PN.
“The combination of BN-PH is needed to form a government until now. Up until today, we have never heard anything from the top leadership to go solo,” she told ST.
