COMMENT | The curious case of Umno's non-reform

COMMENT | Imagine being Umno in 2018. You were the ruling party for 63 years, then got defeated in the national election for the first time. Naturally, the leadership at the time - spearheaded by party president Najib Abdul Razak and deputy Ahmad Zahid Hamidi - would have been blamed for leading the party to its historic low.

Logically, they both would have been held accountable, and the party would have banished or at least disassociated itself from its deeply unpopular leaders, and searched for new leadership, direction and vision.

And yet, six years later, Umno clings to both Najib and Zahid.

In the recently concluded annual assembly, the spectre of Najib looms large over the World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur. Tears were shed in the last two AGMs for the incarcerated Najib.

If Umno still ties its fate to Najib, and - despite judges unanimously at high, appeal, and federal courts finding Najib guilty over the 1MDB scandal - fervently denies his culpability, then they have not learned or repented.

Umno vice-president Johari Abdul Ghani asked the party to apologise to the Malays if they had wronged them - but how could the Malays forgive them if they refused to admit what Najib’s Umno did wrong? The party continues to believe they lost because of “slander” and Bossku is a hero wrongly framed and imprisoned - what is this, if not a party stuck in denial syndrome?

Then there’s Zahid. Despite being the number two in charge during the party’s GE14 defeat, party divisions gave Zahid an outright majority in the 2018 party polls (the combined electoral college votes by his opponents, Khairy Jamaluddin and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, was less than Zahid’s).

Umno had a brief resurgence between 2020 and 2022, but ultimately slide to its worst electoral performance ever in GE15. Zahid’s Umno obtained even less parliamentary seats than Najib’s Umno.

What did the party do? They passed a motion of no-contest for the party presidency to allow Zahid to stay on.

In the UK, Rishi Sunak immediately resigned as Conservative leader after leading the party to its first electoral defeat in 14 years. Japan’s Taro Aso also stepped down after leading the party to defeat in the 2009 polls. What Zahid and Umno are doing is not “normal” in party politics.

Rationality of Umno’s irrationality?

On one hand, this appears to be an irrational move by Umno to cling on to both Najib and Zahid. In the past decade, Umno-BN has seen its share of the popular votes declined from 60 percent to under 30 percent.

Why have they not held the two leaders responsible for its decline (or indeed, decay) and, surprisingly, regard them as potential saviours to lead the party out of its ebbs?

One reason could be that Najib is the son of Abdul Razak Hussein, perhaps the most revered party president in Umno. Or has Najib’s reincarnation as “Bossku” successfully captured and entrapped Umno to his image?

One observer was saying it shouldn’t be surprising how Umno clings on to Najib as we have seen how PKR clung on to Anwar Ibrahim in the past no matter what the courts and mainstream media have decided on his cases.

I was having a coffee chat with another former party insider who offered this perspective on Zahid’s enduring survival. He said, “It’s true that Umno has suffered continuous decline in seats and popular votes under Zahid, but in the eyes of Umno hierarchy, do you know what he has delivered? Since Umno lost power in 2018, they only remained outside the government for 22 months.”

In the 76 months since Umno lost power in May 2018, Zahid’s Umno has been in power one way or another in those 54 months.

Power is addictive and resistant to change. For the party’s rank and file, if Umno is still in power, why the need for drastic change? For the party’s loyalists and division heads, many are still able to “cari makan” and rewarded with positions at various government/government-related bodies. In other words, they are not out of government favours and not in the political wilderness.

Umno’s decay holding the nation at ransom

The unfortunate case is that the time may have passed for genuine reforms in UmnoO. The party’s calculation is now primarily shaped by two questions: (a) does Umno remain in or get out of government? And (b) who does Umno align themselves with in GE16?

Since the Sheraton Move, Umno’s cleavage has been primarily drawn between “Kem Putrajaya” (Umno ministers in Muhyiddin Yassin’s cabinet) and “Kem WTCKL” (those who were not in Muhyiddin’s cabinet, and now mostly in Anwar’s cabinet).

These are priorities decided by external concerns - not an internal reflection on what the party is and should be in today’s political landscape, its reason for existence, its comparative advantage, its identity, its value proposition, its true constituents.

With Najib and Zahid still gripping the party, and a youth chief like Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh - vulgar, uncouth, Najib denialist - why would contemporary Malays forgive and embrace Umno? And even if Umno regains its strength, which Umno will that be? Power without reforms is a temptation to not learn from history.

But talks of a return to dominant party rule at the AGM is wishful thinking: Umno would need to annihilate all other Malay parties to achieve this wish.

For Pakatan Harapan, to nourish Umno back to health is to risk feeding a defeated nemesis that could bite Harapan when it is back to full strength.

Amanah stands to be the biggest loser, as it had learned in Mahkota where the party contested in the last election under Harapan’s banner but is now forced to give way to Umno.

DAP will not be spared from repercussions either. With such a crowded race for Malay seats, DAP will be confined to non-Malay and mixed seats. It will not be allowed to transform into a genuine multiethnic party.

Worryingly, if Umno continues to press for Najib’s full pardon or house arrest, what would DAP say to its supporters and the likes of Tony Pua, who fought so hard and risked jail for pursuing Najib’s 1MDB impunity?

What would PKR say to its Reformasi base? Now they couldn’t even tell the public what they were fighting for during all those years in opposition, ie ABU (anything but Umno) and holding Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor accountable because they are afraid their new ally will get mad.

Such is the curious case of Umno’s non-reform. As long as Umno clings on to Najib and Zahid, the party is unable and unwilling to move on from its past and holds the rest of the political system, and indeed the country at large, for ransom.

OOI KOK HIN is a political sociologist who dabbles in civil society.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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