The six-week-old Save Malaysia campaign spearheaded by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is losing steam, forcing his backer Zaid Ibrahim to come up with a back-up plan.

This is how political commentator Liew Wui Chern assessed Zaid's call to Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to tell his boss Najib Abdul Razak to step down.

"The Save Malaysia Citizens’ Declaration is losing its momentum; the topic seems to have died down. Zaid saw through this and called for people to support Ahmad Zahid," Liew said.

"But the history of Umno tells us it is a rare occasion that those who quit the party can influence the members to turn against their leader," he added.

Mahathir was able to do it from inside the party structure as his handpicked successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was weak then, said Liew.

Mahathir had successfully forced Abdullah to quit, following his failure to retain two-thirds majority in the 2008 general election.

In his comment, Zaid urged Malaysians to give Zahid a chance to replace Najib to put a stop to the people's travails caused by 1MDB.

‘Zahid’s hawks control Umno’

Zaid did acknowledge the weaknesses of Zahid, who is an Umno vice-president and whose Islamic and Malay leanings come off very strongly.

However, the former de facto law minister said these could be improved.

Zaid ( photo ) had also blamed those responsible for managing Zahid's image for not positioning him well as a potential prime minister for all.

Liew said Zahid would not go against the value system of a community that respects their leader by toppling Najib.

"There is no need for him to do so anyway; not now. Zahid leads the hawks in Umno and the rightists are controlling the party," Liew told Malaysiakini .

He also noted with concern that Zahid, whose approach has been conservative and aggressive, may tighten freedom of expression if he were to rule the country.

Liew drew the conclusion based on how Najib was forced to U-turn on the decision to abolish the Sedition Act 1948, and came up with the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) to replace the Internal Security Act 1960.

The Utar lecturer said Zahid had all along opposed the liberalisations introduced by his boss.

Public not convinced

Meanwhile, Merdeka Center executive director Ibrahim Suffian disagreed with Zaid, saying it would take more to stop the suffering of the people caused by the 1MDB fiasco.

"I don't think a change of leadership can immediately solve the problems faced by Malaysia.

"What's essential is to have any incoming leader articulate how the inefficiencies and systemic problems we now have can be addressed.

"I think the public is not fully convinced by the idea of simply changing leaders without also talking about the necessary reforms that are needed. Otherwise, it will continue to be business as usual in a short order of time.

"I'd rather see the process go through wider public participation via the electoral system so that the issues are debated and expectations set for the incoming administration," Ibrahim said.

Agreeing on this, political scientist Wong Chin Huat said Zaid's suggestion reflects a big fallacy in the anti-Najib discourse popularised by Mahathir and many of his new allies.

"That fallacy is that the cause of Najib's corruption is Najib and may be Rosmah (Mansor) and not Umno, (which is) a corrupt and uncompetitive party that cannot win elections without buying votes," Wong said.

The country needs institutional reforms and Umno must also be reformed so it is electorally competitive, without resorting to electoral fraud, corruption and use of coercion to win, he said.

"Without all these institutional reforms, a new prime minister from Umno means a reunited Umno committed to perpetuate electoral fraud, corruption and coercion, so that it can stay in power,” Wong argued.

‘Zaid testing water for Dr M’

"Will Malaysia be better under Ahmad Zahid or any other Umno leader without institutional reforms? Of course not; we will only suffer longer as Umno not only will continue to be corrupt, but also be more authoritarian and ethno-religiously extreme to stay afloat," he stressed.

In Wong’s opinion, only the politically naive would think that things can’t go worse than under Najib.

"Malaysians must do away with Najib because we don’t want another Najib, not because we want to stop the shame and embarrassment in the international media,” he said.

A fellow at the Penang Institute, Wong said the choice of Zahid must be premised on making the system better.

"If Zaid wants to give Zahid a chance, then Zahid should first talk about institutional reforms.

"However, I am happy that Zaid raised this point. He may be testing the water for Mahathir. Any wonder why Mahathir insists that only Najib needs to be changed, and the system can go on?" Wong asked.