The abrupt and un-Malay fashion of sacking of Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and several others for not toeing the line on the 1MDB scandal is drowning a nation of people in an avalanche of hate, hurt and disappointment over their prime minister.

Meanwhile, the new army of cabinet loyalists with support through threats and warnings from the police against the newly-hatched opponents within Umno are trying to dig in to stave off definite repercussions from Malay Muslim grassroots supporters of Muhyiddin and Co.

The truth is, perhaps, we never anticipated that Umno will finally be put to the test so soon.

The current scenario is also far more precarious by comparison to the Semangat 46 struggles or the heights of the Reformasi following the sacking of Anwar Ibrahim.

The role and power of Information Communication Technologies as seen unfurling on the social media will be an unprecedented challenge to the Najib Abdul Razak team and the law keepers, too.

In the days well before the advent of the New Age media, disillusioned Malays running amok with parangs and sticks in hand would have been the sole challenge to fend off. The Printing Presses and Publications Act, with ample muscle from the Sedition and Internal Security Acts, would have made mass protests a mere storm in the tea cup.

But the scenario is very different today which the newly minted communications and multimedia minister must contend with. No amount of policing can stall the power of the alternative media. The more force is used, the deeper will be the anger among the hurt and slighted Malay Muslim Umno grassroots.

The talk in the market place - including the way news is being presented in the regional and global newspapers, clearly indicates that Umno Malays are falling out of love for their party president. And as non-Umno members and non-Malays join the bruised Umno Malays, Najib and his team will realise that they may have bitten off more than they could chew.

Indeed, at a time when economic and financial issues are becoming the major preoccupation of leaders around the world, Malaysia’s leadership has flowed into the mighty, uncertain ocean of Malay sentiment that has a symbiotic tie with Umno and its leaders and the Malay political culture.

To continue to peddle an alarm that Umno must be saved from Umno-haters has already lost its steam. How Najib and his team will be able to successfully sell a story line of protecting Malay interests when Muhyiddin’s sacking is not going down well among the grassroots, appears almost predictable.

A nation’s leader and the supreme icon of Malay struggles and supremacy is now being doubted. Najib is fast losing the appeal not only amongst Umno Malays but it cuts across a wider segment of the population beyond party lines and race parameters.

The sacking of a veteran politician and die-hard party man who comes from a state that is also the cradle of Umno, and simply because he stood in the way of the 1MDB debacle, has finally split the very core of Umno.

Will Najib resurrect the hurt and wounded Umno or will he be driven out by the very maimed and hurt Umno is no longer a speculation. The outcome is written all over the nation, and even among the rural vote banks.

The real problem here is, Najib has cut too deep hurting the politico-cultural mindset of the Umno Malays. It is no longer a power struggle to do better for the Malays but one of ‘meghina maruah Melayu dan bangsa Melayu’.

In this regard, will the Conference of Rulers perhaps convene to save the nation from drowning in darkness? And pray it better be sooner.