IT will take Umno at least three years to recover from its worst-ever electoral performance, even as it sacks three leaders critical of party leadership during the recent general election, analysts said.

They said more are expected to be given the boot in the run-up to the party polls as its president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi consolidates his leadership now that he is once again deputy prime minister.

Dr Mazlan Ali of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia said Umno may need two to three years to recover from the disastrous election result but can regain its footing as it is now part of the ruling government.

On Thursday, former Ketereh MP Annuar Musa was sacked by the party and analysts said many more will be removed for criticising Zahid.

Annuar was among three divisional leaders that the Umno Supreme Council dismissed, including two women’s division chiefs and one division chief – for disparaging the party and campaigning (for an opposing party).

It was reported that the two women’s division chiefs shown the door were former Perlis Umno chairman Shahidan Kassim’s wife Shamsiah Md Yassin, who was also Arau Wanita chief, and Maran division chief Ismail Abd Muttalib’s wife Fatimah Kassim, who was Maran Wanita division chief.

Mazlan said Annuar’s sacking was expected, adding that two to three more individuals are in Umno’s crosshairs.

He described the removals as a clean-up process after Umno lost badly in the last national polls to PAS and Bersatu.

“It is nothing surprising because Annuar was very harsh towards his own party and refused to toe the party line. Annuar campaigned for a rival party and openly condemned the Umno leadership,” Mazlan said.

“He should have known better and can’t expect the party to stay silent. There will be one or two more that will be sacked as well, in my opinion. Umno is going to clean up the party before their election,” said the academic.

“If they can deliver, especially if they can win the trust of the Malays, Umno has a chance of making a comeback.

“Moreover, it is now part of the government. It needs to play an important role in order to win over the rural Malays again,” said Mazlan.

Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan had earlier warned that the party is looking at members who went against the its leadership in the general election and warned there will be more sackings.

Iman Research programme director Badrul Hisham Ismail, on the other hand, said Annuar was not as harsh as other leaders in Umno who have been attacking Zahid openly.

Although he agreed that Annuar had gone against the party, Badrul said there were others who had made statements deemed detrimental to the party.

“Some were harsher than Annuar but no action has been taken on them yet, like Hishammuddin Hussein who openly condemned Umno for wanting to work with Pakatan Harapan.

“But I am not surprised by Annuar’s sacking. This is part of the chess game which will end at the party polls next year,” said Badrul.

He also predicted Umno may shuffle office bearers at the state level ahead of the polls.

“Don’t be surprised if Umno decides to replace state leaders such as Johor Menteri Besar Onn Ghazi who had urged Zahid to resign.

“This can happen and this will drag the internal dispute in Umno.

“Internal bickering will continue at state level, federal level and party level. The party polls will be one of the catalysts. Another one is the state polls in Selangor, Kedah, Terengganu, Kelantan and so on,” he added.

Previously, Umno sacked four members who contested against the party for parliament seats in the general election, namely Shahidan (Arau), Ismail (Maran), and Zahidi Zainul Abidin (Padang Besar), as well as Kuala Perlis assemblyman Azhar Ahmad.

All of them were dropped by the party for going against Zahid who had refused to cooperate with Bersatu and PAS under the Muafakat Nasional banner.

In October, Umno veteran Zaharin Md Yassin was sacked from the party.

Meanwhile, Universiti Malaya’s Prof Dr Awang Azman Awang Pawi said Umno decided to sack rebels now as it did not want to create more problems for the party during the election month.

He said Umno could have sacked Annuar and the others earlier but chose to delay the action.

“These rebels were actually the cause why Umno lost to Bersatu and PAS. The rebels wanted Bersatu and PAS to be more dominant than Umno, therefore they wanted Umno to cooperate with Perikatan Nasional (PN).”

“The sackings could not be carried out earlier as it was a touchy issue. Now they can clean up the party and get rid of certain quarters who wanted to be part of PN.

“Umno may need six to seven months to fix its own problems. If the pro-Zahid camp wins the party polls, they can control the narrative and Umno can regain its strength again soon,” Awang Azman added.

Following his sacking, Annuar in a veiled jab at the Umno leadership, described the party as a house on fire that he could not save due to his being kicked out of the organisation.

The former communications and multimedia minister, in a Facebook post, said he could only watch his “house” burn from the outside – based on a dream he had last night.

“On Friday night, I had a dream. The inherited house that I have been living in was on fire. I suspected that either the main switch had a short circuit or one of its cables cut off.

“I love the house. I tried to put out the fire so that we could stop more of its occupants from abandoning our house.

“But as the fire was blazing and many others continued to leave the house, I was suddenly pulled out. And now I can only watch from the outside as the fire burns it down,” he said. – December 10, 2022.