UMNO looks like a party obsessed with seizing power, thanks to its president, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who had worked with others in the party’s “court cluster” to bring down the previous government, suspended Umno member Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris said.

This makes Umno look bad and could affect its performance in the 15th general election, the vocal party critic and former Umno Youth executive council member said.

“For the greater good and survival of the party, Zahid should resign,” Azri said in an interview.

The party president needs to reflect on Umno’s failure to win in the 14th general election (GE14) as the party was punished for standing by then president Najib Razak, who was embroiled in corruption scandals related to 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

Azri, whose blog moniker is Papagomo, said Umno leaders then did not heed public anger over the scandal.

“Before GE14, the Najib issue was often brought up by the grassroots, but they didn’t pay attention to it, so they were punished by the people,” he said.

“If the Umno Supreme Council doesn’t change and does what it did in GE14, the grassroots won’t stand to gain anything. Umno cannot play politics the old way.”

Last month, Zahid led the Umno Supreme Council in deciding to immediately withdraw support for then prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

Fourteen of the party’s MPs, including Zahid, signed statutory declarations to that effect. One more, Noraini Ahmad, quit her cabinet post to protest Muhyiddin’s leadership of the government.

This paved the way for Umno vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob to be appointed the country’s ninth prime minister after commanding the support of 114 MPs. This support included Zahid’s group of 15.

Apart from Zahid, who is facing corruption cases in court, others among the 15 who also have graft trials are Najib, Ahmad Maslan, Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim and Bung Moktar Radin. They are among other Umno leaders with cases dubbed the “court cluster”.

Azri said Zahid should have stepped down after overthrowing Muhyiddin and ensuring Umno got back the prime minister’s post.

“Now that Muhyiddin has resigned and Ismail Sabri is the new prime minister and most of the cabinet ministers are also from Umno, what more does he want?

“We are talking about the party, not about an individual. Although Ismail Sabri is the prime minister, the people can see that Umno is being led by Zahid, who is also facing corruption charges,” he said.

He suggested that Umno deputy president Mohamad Hassan take over Zahid’s post.

Azri also reminded Umno that the party had won several by-elections when Zahid went on leave for six months from December 2018.

At the time, the acting president was Mohamad, who is the Rantau assemblyman and a former Negri Sembilan menteri besar.

“If Zahid loves the party, he should step down. Umno can rebuild its image with Mohamad as the acting president,” said Azri.

“Umno needs to rebuild its image and as long as he (Zahid) is there, the people will see that there is a problem.”

He also suggested that Ismail be appointed the Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman to save the coalition’s image. The post is still held by Zahid by virtue of being the president of Umno, the lynchpin of BN.

“Umno needs to be saved for the people to have a positive perspective of it,” said Azri.

He said his criticism of Zahid was the reason behind the Umno disciplinary board’s recent decision to suspend his membership for six years.

Previously, a group of Wangsa Maju Umno members reported Azri to the party’s disciplinary committee for using his Facebook account to encourage Umno grassroots and leaders to cooperate with Bersatu.

The suspension, issued by Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan, says Azri has acted in contravention of the party constitution by disregarding its decisions and instructions, and by failing to protect the party’s name.

Azri became popular with some Malay circles as blogger Papagomo and for his attacks on Pakatan Harapan as well as his comments on race and religious issues affecting Muslims.

He became admired enough to rise within the ranks in Umno Youth and won an exco post in the 2018 party elections after Umno lost federal power for the first time in GE14 the same year.

Azri has been sued for defamation several times and in June, in a civil suit brought against him by DAP’s Lim Guan Eng and his son Clint Lim, denied that he was the blogger called Papagomo.

However, past media reports on Azri have always stated that he is also known as Papagomo, which he never denied.

The blog, Papagomo, was last active in 2011. – September 5, 2021.