Who are the warlords?

Who are the warlords?

by Zaid Ibrahim

COMMENT | Many political writers are actively writing nowadays, probably the lockdown spurs them to do so.

One of them is my friend Rosli Azad Khan. He recently wrote a piece in an online news portal that Umno must rid itself of warlords if they are to be accepted by the people. Cut the gangrene, he thundered.

A week before that Daim Zainuddin, who himself a warlord of immense power, said the same thing. Who are actually the warlords? It will be helpful if we know the name of Umno leaders who should be deposed. Are they referring to those facing criminal charges like Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor and Najib Abdul Razak?

A warlord in the middle ages is someone with military power and sits high in the feudal hierarchy, just below the monarch. They were the shoguns in Japan, followed by the daimyos, and the knights and the dukes in feudal Europe.

The lower strata were the peasants and the serfs. Now in the world of organised crime, we have the godfathers, who wield power and influence, without the formality of power.

Political organisations are no different. They have a hierarchy of leaders. They have their own shoguns and the daimyos. In Umno, they had their version of Tokugawa Ieyasu (the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate), a strong leader who controlled the warring factions. Dr Mahathir Mohamad was Umno’s Ieyasu. He was the first Umno shogun.

Tokugawa shogunate only ended when the Satsuma and the Chosu combined forces to enable the ascension of a teenage Emperor Meiji 240 years later. Umno too lost power when its own shogun, Mahathir, combined forces with PKR and DAP shoguns.

Only a strong shogun can exercise control of the members and voters. They need to have an established network within the political organisation and by their patronage, they are in control of key levers of power.

Naturally, they need huge sums of money for that purpose, not to mention to fund the elections. Please do not belittle the warlords, for they are an essential part of any political structure throughout the ages.

Mahathir (ably assisted by Daim) is the most powerful shogun in Umno’s history. For over three decades they were in complete control of the party and its resources. Why do you think he was able to dictate who succeeded him and who should be removed?

Mahathir was able to freely criticise any incumbent prime minister without consequence to himself. He was that powerful. According to sources he was behind the Sheraton Move to bring Umno and others willing to submit to him, into the fold of Bersatu.

He was on the road to have Umno operate under his new party. Unfortunately, he was upended by his own right-hand daimyo, who is now the shogun for Bersatu.

Najib Abdul Razak is also a shogun in Umno. When he became PM in 2009, he knew very early that the control of the party and its resources were still in the hands of Mahathir and his daimyos in Umno.

He knew that he could not be independent of Mahathir unless he built his own financial resources to be a strong shogun in Umno. He did not want the crooked bridge and he did not want Proton to continue to bleed the country.

A turf war began to take shape. He courted Saudi King Abdullah who gave him generously, although the court did not believe the story. He wanted 1MDB to succeed so he could use the sovereign fund to develop the country and the poorer segments of society, the B40 who are actually like the peasant class of the old days.

But Najib did not expect those closest to him, and his trusted lieutenants to betray him. Jho Low was more sophisticated and devious than most people expect of a young man. I think Low was working with Najib for sure, but at the same time, working with Najib’s enemies, without Najib even knowing. That’s why he could not be found. But that’s just my hunch.

Coming back to Umno. What do the members have to do? Remove Najib the shogun himself because he is facing multiple criminal charges? It is not so simple. If I am an Umno member I will have to ponder deeply and at least consider the probability that Najib was a victim of a political conspiracy.

Maybe he does not deserve the label “a thief and a kleptocrat” that the former shogun had used on him. Of course, the court will decide all these issues but you as a member of the party must not abandon your leader easily.

Think of the good things he has done for you. Look at the facts and wear the hat of a juror. Decide for yourself if your shogun would take a bribe of RM42 million (and put the money into his account) when you know that shoguns do not take RM42 million, but more like RM400 million at any one time.

Your shogun had been dragged to court many times, but he was unflappable and always looks relaxed. And he always told friends that he will clear his name. If you believe him then you must stand up and defend him, and not let his enemies cloud your judgement.

If on the other hand you believe he is a kleptocrat and a thief, abandon him and join Bersatu. I am assuming you believe the leaders (shoguns) in Bersatu do not take political donations, never offered bribes to entice support, always pay their taxes and never abused their power. That’s for you to reflect and ponder.

Do I have answers on how to revive BN and Umno? I don’t, but certainly not by removing Najib. I am more inclined to believe Umno and BN have better chances of coming back to power if you make him stronger and he leads the charge.

But then I am not an Umno member, so what do I know.



ZAID IBRAHIM is a former law minister who resigned from the AAB cabinet to protest the use of the ISA to detain Teresa Kok (DAP) and Tan Hoon Cheng (Sin Chew journalist)