IT was inevitable that Najib Razak had to go as Umno president, and with that, as Barisan Nasional chairman.

He is the first sitting Malaysian prime minister ever to lose a general election and calls for his ouster turned from whispers to a roar that included his cousin, Umno vice-president Hishammuddin Hussein.

The same fate had befallen Abdullah Ahmad Badawi when he lost the two-thirds parliamentary majority in the 2008 polls, in what was seen as punishment for failing to fulfil promises made in the 2004 elections.

Najib had been defiant against the calls to quit in the hours following Barisan Nasional’s shock and total collapse in the May 9 polls. He had told his party colleagues that Pakatan Harapan’s negative campaign had turned the voters against the ruling coalition.

He had also cited the unpopular goods and services tax as the main reason voters deserted the only government Malaysians had ever known since Merdeka in 1957.

“He refused to see that he was the reason for BN’s loss,” an Umno source told Malaysia Decides.

The source said that Najib and a few hard-line aides were confident of getting some PH lawmakers to cross over in the aftermath of the election on Wednesday night.

But their efforts came to naught and PH chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad was made prime minister after a four-hour delay at a swearing-in ceremony in Istana Negara on Thursday.

In chat groups across BN’s component parties, grassroots leaders vented their fury at Najib and blamed him for the rout that included MCA, MIC and Gerakan presidents losing to PH candidates.

“It was Najib and his damn 1MDB that cost us and our party chief the polls,” a branch chief wrote in one chat group. – May 12, 2018.