UMNO made several mistakes in Saturday’s general election, which resulted in the defeat of many of its heavyweights, the loss of two states as well as the overall poor performance of Barisan Nasional (BN), political pundits said.

They told The Malaysian Insight Umno also failed to learn from its previous election blunders, ignoring the waning Malay support since 2008.

They also did not deny that there were elements of sabotage within Umno after Ahmad Zahid Hamidi dropped several warlords from contesting.

Umno won only 26 parliamentary seats on Saturday, one of its worst election defeats since the country’s independence.

Big names such as Khairy Jamaluddin, Mahdzir Khalid, Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim and Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz all fell.

Many were defeated at the hands of Perikatan Nasional candidates, who are set to become first-term MPs.

Hisommudin Bakar of Ilham Centre said that Umno president Zahid failed to understand that people’s sentiments can easily change over a period of time as he was still overwhelmed by Umno’s strong performance in the Johor and Malacca elections earlier this year.

He added that Umno’s failure to compete with PN via social media during the campaign period was another reason why the Malay party lost so many seats to PN.

“Obviously Umno did not learn from its mistakes. They were carried away by the victory in the Malacca and Johor elections. This was the same thing that happened when they called for GE14 after winning handsomely in the Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar by-elections.

“Voter behaviour changes frequently and Umno just can’t rely on Malacca and Johor. Plus they were calling for an election during monsoon season, that is why they were crushed by this so-called wave,” he said.

Hisommudin said first-time voters, including fence sitters, were influenced by PN’s online campaign especially on TikTok, adding that young voters without any political affiliation or understanding preferred PN.

“It was like BN gave PN a free ride during the campaign period. They did not even try to compete or challenge PN. Therefore, first-time voters were easily influenced by PN,” said Hisommudin.

Pakatan Harapan (PH) won 76 seats, its coalition member Sarawak DAP (5) and Muda (1), for a total of 82 seats.

PN and PAS won 51 and 22 seats respectively, for a combined total of 73.

BN won 30, Gabungan Parti Sarawak (22), Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (6), Warisan (3), Parti Bangsa Malaysia (1) and two Independents (1 each).

Replacing warlords a suicidal move

Meanwhile, Universiti Sains Malaysia academic Prof Dr Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid said one big reason the Malays decided to turn against Umno was because of the party’s stance towards corruption.

He added the second mistake that Umno made in the election was replacing old guards who were deemed anti-presidents with those aligned to Zahid.

“Umno did not learn from their mistakes. That is a fact. The trend (support for Umno) had been declining since 2008 but they never did anything to fix it. They were on the verge of a comeback but then they decided to back Najib Razak, who was already found guilty of corruption.

“Umno was defending crooks and this behaviour is not what the Malays like. It is okay to defend someone who has not been found guilty but (not so) to support someone who is already in jail. That was a key moment for the Malays to look for a clean Malay party.

“Then the president decided to wage a war with several warlords by not naming them as candidates. Dropping Noh Omar, Shahidan Kassim and others backfired at Umno as many of them spoke openly against the president. These people are champions at their respective seats.

“Then you have pro-Zahid people like Lokman Adam attacking Umno’s own candidate on social media. When you are not united, what does it tell you about Umno,” he said.

Both Hisommudin and Fauzi agreed that internal bickering was another reason why Umno lost badly in the polls.

“Sabotage was inevitable. When you are dissatisfied because you were not named, your supporters and grassroots will retaliate. I am not sure if Zahid is either naive about this or he thinks he is untouchable,” said Hisommudin.

Fauzi added that Zahid should have known better as his period as president was not the same as Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s era.

“He should know better because he is a very senior party member. His time and Dr Mahathir’s time are not the same. He thought he could do a Dr Mahathir by sacking or replacing old guards but that tactic backfired,” he said.

Zahid is also seeing rebellion from within, with calls seeking his resignation as Umno president and BN chairman to take responsibility for a poor outing in the general election.

Several BN MPs are also openly supporting PN chairman Muhyiddin Yassin to form the next government despite Zahid’s preference to work with PH and Anwar Ibrahim.

At the same time, there are also calls from the party to just remain in the opposition. – November 22, 2022.