Umno, until recently the most influential partner in Malaysia's shaky Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition, is slowly emerging as the major casualty following Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's move to suspend Parliament and declare a national state of emergency.

Now, party officials and former leaders fear that the latest challenges facing Umno, already wracked by conflicting agendas among party warlords, factional infighting and a failure to repair its graft-tarred image, could push it into a break-up that it may never recover from.