Umno seeks to curb infighting before party polls
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Umno's headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. The party's delayed 2022 annual general assembly will be held from Jan 11 to 14.
PHOTO: ST FILE
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KUALA LUMPUR - Umno will move to prevent further erosion of its already shrunken power in Malaysian politics by amending its Constitution to withdraw the membership of renegade elected representatives.
The change is set to take place at its delayed 2022 annual general assembly to be held from Jan 11 to 14, where a resolution not to challenge president Zahid Hamidi – whose leadership of Umno is crucial for the stability of the Anwar Ibrahim administration
Secretary-general Ahmad Maslan, at a press conference on Tuesday, refused to directly address the matter of whether the party would decide that the top two posts in Umno – including Defence Minister Mohamad Hasan’s position as deputy president – would not be challenged.
“I wish to announce that Umno’s general assembly is next week,” he said, before explaining that his vague response meant that he did not want to answer the question concerning the party polls that are due by May.
There has been speculation that a resolution to ring-fence Umno’s two highest positions could be approved to head off a potential challenge from former vice-president Hishammuddin Hussein, although the former home and defence minister has yet to announce his intention to do so.
With just 26 MPs in the 222-strong federal legislature, Umno is at its weakest after a drubbing at the Nov 19, 2022,
But Umno found its way into the government after Deputy Premier Zahid allied the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) with Datuk Seri Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) in a so-called unity government.
This was despite at least 10 Umno MPs, led by Datuk Seri Hishammuddin, initially backing Perikatan Nasional (PN) chief Muhyiddin Yassin, whose coalition of 74 federal lawmakers now makes up the entire opposition.
Although Umno has been riddled with factionalism since the 2018 general election – when it lost power for the first time in Malaysia’s six-decade history
For now, it remains crucial as one of three main parties that won the lion’s share of the Malay-Muslim majority votes. The other two are Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia and Parti Islam SeMalaysia, the main components of Tan Sri Muhyiddin’s PN.
Datuk Seri Ahmad, who is also Deputy Finance Minister, said on Tuesday that Umno’s constitutional amendment will bring it in line with anti-party hopping legislation that came into effect in 2022.
Last week, he said a clause would be amended so that an “Umno member will automatically lose his membership if he joins a political coalition that Umno is not part of, or decides to be independent”.
However, there is uncertainty over the Malay term “gugur” that the Deputy Finance Minister used, which directly translates to “drop”, but could contextually mean “expire” or “withdraw”.
Under Malaysia’s new but untested anti-party hopping legislation,
Mr Ahmad told The Straits Times on Tuesday that the exact wording has yet to be determined, but will be discussed at leadership meetings this week.
Umno’s general assembly is also expected to touch on its participation in the unity government, after having declared at the last national congress in 2021 that it would not work with Mr Anwar and his coalition partners – especially the Democratic Action Party which conservative Malay Muslims accuse of trying to undermine their special ethnic and religious rights.
PH and BN are also mulling over an electoral pact to face PN in six states that did not hold concurrent polls
PH leaders are set to meet on Saturday to discuss cooperation with BN in the state elections that must be held by the middle of 2023.
