UMNO’s hopes on rebuilding the party and being a strong opposition has been dashed after the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) froze the party’s accounts, said grassroots leaders.

They also felt the MACC move was an attempt to make things difficult for the party, which has been the lynchpin of the Barisan Nasional coalition.

Party deputy Youth chief Shahril Hamdan said this threw a spanner into the works as Umno is trying to revamp itself after the crushing defeat at the 14th general election.

“It certainly is something that greatly assists our opponents. At a time when we are trying to rebuild, frozen accounts make things remarkably more difficult,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

The Kuala Langat lawmaker said Umno would even find it hard to keep the party administration afloat.

“Crippling access to funds makes things much more difficult, not to mention the very real issue of party staff with families to feed, who rely on Umno salary,” Shahril said.

Umno Hulu Langat division chief Johan Abdul Aziz said the frozen funds will “make life difficult for Umno”.

“That is their intention. Make things as difficult for us as possible. It is going to be hard to even run the administration of the party from now on,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

The Semenyih assemblyman added that the party’s top leadership is mulling action to lift the freeze but declined to elaborate.

The MACC on Thursday froze the bank accounts of the party headquarters and its branch in Selangor.

This was reportedly done as investigators widen their investigations into the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.

The 1MDB task force said the accounts of other political parties were frozen as well, not just Umno’s.

Former BN minister Nazri Abdul Aziz, however, was optimistic, saying there is room for negotiations.

“I was the minister in charge of MACC for nine years. They are apolitical. I’m sure it can be discussed with them,” the former Umno Supreme Council member told The Malaysian Insight.

Nazri is hopeful that the MACC will allow access to some of the funds to pay members and administrative costs.

Meanwhile, Merdeka Centre’s Ibrahim Suffian said MACC’s actions were a long time coming, especially with former Umno president Najib Razak’s direct involvement with 1MDB.

“Well, it is currently subjected to investigation considering the former president said the money seized was meant for election and the party.

“Given the case that’s being built up on the 1MDB matter, it was expected that such action be taken,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

But Ibrahim said the timing of the seizure is questionable, especially when Umno is having internal party elections.

“The timing, however, does put the party under further pressure and stress,” he said.

Political analyst Hisomuddin Bakar said this move would effectively set the stage for Umno to be deregistered.

“This looks like Umno will be deregistered, or chances of them being deregistered will be high,” Hisomuddin said.

In responding to the freeze of the accounts, vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi accused the government and the Registrar of Societies of trying to deregister the party.

Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, however, said there was no malice behind the investigations and MACC was simply following the rule of law. – June 30, 2018.