Umno must reform or risk becoming a victim of its own atrocities, warned a political scientist.

Penang Institute fellow Wong Chin Huat told Malaysiakini that as it is, there is nothing stopping Umno's eventual victor from abusing them.

"Umno can't delay its inevitable defeat. The moment it loses power, it will fall victim to the new winner.

"That's why Umno needs to advocate for reform," he said.

Wong was commenting on the press conference by Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Muhyiddin Yassin, Shafie Apdal, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, and Ong Tee Keat yesterday to condemn the abuse of the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma).

The anti-terrorism law has been used against former Umno leader Khairuddin Abu Hassan and his lawyer Matthias Chang for making police reports overseas against 1MDB.

Besides avoiding future abuses of power by enacting reforms, Wong said Umno would also be able to weather defeat and not collapse completely.

"Muhyiddin, Shafie, and Ku Li need to ask themselves can Umno survive a competitive election.

"If they want to survive, they need to transform so they can be like Taiwan's Koumintang or Mexico's PRI, where they may eventually lose an election but can make a comeback," Wong added.

'Sold themselves'

As for Sosma, he said it was a good reaction from Mahathir.

"But what he should do is come out and call for the system that is currently in place to be dismantled.

"This will redeem him of his past sins," Wong said.

Fellow analyst Wan Saiful Wan Jan said the press conference yesterday will not change BN's stand towards Sosma.

"The people who have positions in government have more or less sold themselves to the position (of defending Sosma).

"They will use stale arguments [...] like telling Mahathir he had used the Internal Security Act so why can't they (use Sosma)," he said.