Umno reeling from Malay rejection

The Star:

Umno reeling from Malay rejection

By JOCELINE TAN
ANALYSIS


THE mood at the Umno headquarters on election night went down as soon as the results from the army votes trickled in.

There was shock that Umno had received only around 20% from the army personnel who had voted earlier in the six-state election.

And when the results of the police votes also started coming in, it was apparent that Umno had lost what used to be its fixed deposit - the support of the army, police and probably also the civil servants.

“It was a mixed mood. We were grateful for retaining the three states and the seats we won but the losses were depressing,” said an Umno supreme council member.

Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Asyraf Wajdi tried to lift the mood by calling out “hidup Umno!” and so on but the Umno crowd was largely subdued.

Most of them sat around, chatting quietly, worried but putting up a brave front.

“How to feel happy? How to face our grassroots?” said the above supreme council member.

The shock, said an aide to a former minister, was not confined to Umno.

Amanah president Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu, who was the first Pakatan Harapan figure to arrive at the gathering, pulled Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Salleh aside to tell him that Umno needed to assess the situation and do something about it.

“It was quite ironic that Amanah who is often seen as the weak link in Pakatan is giving advice to Umno,” said the above aide.

The results for all six states were confirmed by the time Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim arrived and one of his top aides could be heard asking the Umno figures around him: “What happened?”

The green wave of November last year had morphed into a Malay wave and Umno had sunk even further, winning only 20 of the 108 seats the party contested.

The joke in Umno was that the number of corruption charges their president is fighting in court is more than the seats they won in the election.

Perikatan Nasional has conquered Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu as well Selangor’s Malay seats.

“Umno has been uprooted in the Malay heartland,” said political analyst Khaw Veon Szu.

It is estimated that Umno now commands barely 20% of Malay support.

Perikatan’s big win also suggests that many Umno members voted against their own party.

Furthermore, the votes won by Perikatan almost equalled that won by Pakatan/Umno.

Pakatan leaders in Selangor felt like they had been hit by a typhoon. They came in big in 2008 before securing two-thirds majorities in 2013 and 2018.

But with Umno onboard, they lost 22 seats and their super majority.

Many of them felt that instead of Umno helping them in the Malay seats, it was Pakatan supporters who carried Umno candidates.

Some have poked fun at Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali for winning Hulu Kelang by a majority of only about 1,000 votes. But Azmin actually overturned the previous Pakatan majority of 15,2349 votes to win.

It was similar to what Khairy Jamaluddin achieved in Sungai Buloh except that Khairy could not breast the tape.

In the aftermath of the 2013 general election, Datuk Seri Najib Razak was bashed for asking “what more do the Chinese want?” after acceding to numerous Chinese demands.

Anwar, on his part, has gone out of his way to reach out to the Malays, to assure them that their religion and position are not threatened and that he is able to check the role of DAP.

As such, Anwar might well be asking himself, “what more do the Malays want?”

When met in Kepala Batas a day before polling, Umno stalwart Md Osman Mat admitted he was the only one in his family of five who would be voting for the Penaga Umno candidate Mohd Naim Salleh.

“My wife is angry with Umno for sacking KJ (Khairy Jamaluddin), my three children say Umno leaders only care about themselves. When I said Umno has done so much for the Malays, they say that is Umno of the past,” said Osman.

Osman, a school administrator, also asked the Penaga candidate to phone the teachers in his school, but he admitted: “I think, no effect.”

So who and what is to blame for this sad state of affairs? Umno could not blame it on Perikatan after freezing all their bank accounts.

Neither could it be blamed on Umno traitors since those so-called traitors had been sacked or suspended. They could hardly blame DAP because it was DAP supporters who helped Umno win.

Everyone knows that one of the reasons for Malays abandoning Umno is, of course, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

He is like the elephant in the room which everyone in Umno pretends is not a problem although former Terengganu mentri besar Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh has boldly asked him to step down.

Many Malays can still be persuaded to accept Umno but they cannot accept Umno with Ahmad Zahid up there.

However, there is no way that Ahmad Zahid will step aside and Umno will have to work their way around him.

“A generational shift is taking place among the Malays. The Reformasi wave changed the way Malays looked at Umno but that is over. There is now a Malay wave and it will get bigger if there is no alternative Malay party to take on Perikatan,” said Khaw.