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Has Zahid lost control of Umno? Only over MPs, say analysts

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They say there is still strong support at the grassroots level, as well as among divisional leaders and supreme council members for the party president.

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Free Malaysia Today
Barisan Nasional MPs with Ismail Sabri Yaakob at yesterday’s press conference. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA:
Some people may be thinking Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has lost control of his party since most Umno MPs are refusing to toe the party line and withdraw support for the Perikatan Nasional-led (PN) government.

But this is not so, according to two analysts. They told FMT that Zahid still had the trust and support of the Umno grassroots.

Awang Azman Pawi of Universiti Malaya (UM) said MPs with ministerial posts and other government positions only appeared to have the upper hand over Zahid because of his exclusion from the Cabinet.

Noting that Zahid was the first Umno president without a Cabinet position, he said this made it easy for him to be belittled by Umno members with government positions.

“The situation would have been different if Zahid was the prime minister or deputy prime minister, but this does not mean he has no influence among Umno grassroots,” he said.

“As a president with no government position, Zahid has the sympathy of the grassroots, and more so now after the issue involving the Registrar of Societies (RoS), which came about just after Zahid and his allies turned against PN.”

He said the registrar’s declaration that the postponement of Umno’s elections was invalid would only increase grassroots support for Zahid, and heighten their anger against the PN-led government.

Oh Ei Sun of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs said there needed to be a distinction between Zahid’s support among MPs and the backing he was getting from the grassroots, division leaders, and supreme council.

He said Zahid was in fact still in firm control of the party leadership although it was clear he no longer enjoyed the support of most MPs from Umno.

Oh noted that one of the supreme council members could replace Zahid as president if necessary, but he said he did not know anyone else in Umno who enjoyed the same amount of grassroots support.

At a press conference yesterday, deputy prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced that 31 Barisan Nasional MPs, 27 of them from Umno, would continue supporting the PN-led government.

Ismail, who is an Umno vice-president, claimed that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong had told the BN MPs to remain with the government until its legitimacy is tested in Parliament.

The Umno MPs are in outright defiance of a declaration Zahid made last Tuesday that Umno was withdrawing its support for the government.

Soon after Ismail’s announcement yesterday, Tanjong Karang MP Noh Omar and Baling MP Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim held separate press conferences clarifying that their signatures on a list shown by the deputy prime minister were merely to confirm their attendance at a meeting with BN MPs.

They said the signatures did not signify that they were backing Muhyiddin Yassin but that they just want to obey the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, who had consented to a confidence vote to be held at the next Parliamentary sitting in September.

This seemed to hint that they would continue backing the PN government until Parliament sits and would vote against the prime minister when a motion of confidence is tabled.

Hours later, Wanita Umno chief Noraini Ahmad announced her resignation as higher education minister, becoming the second Cabinet member to quit in obedience to Zahid.

The first minister to tender his resignation was Shamsul Anuar Nasarah who held the energy and natural resources portfolio.

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