UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi cannot be solely blamed for the party’s dismal performance in the recently concluded six-state elections, party veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah said. 

Tengku Razaleigh said the leaders in the party should “shoulder the responsibility together”.

“Actually, it is not only Zahid as the president who needs to be responsible (for the party’s woes) because this is not the work of just one individual,” Tengku Razaleigh, fondly known as Ku Li, told The Malaysian Insight in a recent interview. 

“Surely there are other leaders who have also played their part. So, they must also shoulder the responsibility together instead of Zahid shouldering the blame alone, because the responsibility does not fall only on one person.

“If the party lost in certain seats as in the recent state elections, it means that everyone in the leadership has failed. 

“So, I personally feel it is unfair to force one person to call his resignation. Instead, all those involved should be asked (to step down),” said the country’s longest-serving lawmaker, who lost the Gua Musang parliamentary seat in the last general election. 

There had been a growing chorus of critics calling for the deputy prime minister to step down from Umno after the party’s poor showing in the state elections.

Umno, which was the only party that contested under the Barisan Nasional (BN) banner with both MIC and MCA opting to sit out, won only 19 seats out of 108 it contested across the six states of Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Penang, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu. 

Umno veteran Idris Jusoh had openly called for Zahid to resign, blaming him entirely for the party’s defeat in Terengganu. 

Calls for Zahid to step down had been ringing since BN’s dismal performance in the 15th general election, with the coalition only winning 30 out of 191 seats it contested.  

Zahid’s also drew criticism for agreeing to cooperate with long-time nemesis Pakatan Harapan to form the federal government following a week-long political impasse after no party or coalition managed to muster simple majority. 

He cemented his hold on Umno after the party passed a no-contest resolution for the top two positions – president and deputy president.  

Zahid also sacked a list of prominent leaders ahead of party polls, including former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and former Tanjong Karang lawmaker, Noh Omar. 

Several others, including Hishammuddin Hussein and Shahril Hamdan, were suspended for six years.

Internal issues to consider

Ku Li said although Umno has yet to complete its post-mortem on the state elections, there were other factors that could have possibly led to the party’s downfall. 

He cited, among others, Umno’s “internal issue”.

“I think that BN, especially Umno, had used a fairly effective strategy for the polls but there is a situation within Umno itself that people cannot accept. 

“That is one of the problems,” he said without further comment.

The other factors he said could be low voter turnout or even party members giving the snub. 

“In these state elections, we can see not many went out to vote… even some Umno members. 

“There were lots of considerations for those returning to vote, especially cost, distance to travel (after just going back in November) and more. 

“So, the percentage of people who came out to vote wasn’t like GE15. It had fallen,” he said.  

Based on Election Commission data, Terengganu recorded the highest percentage of voter turnout of 74.79% in the state polls, followed by Kedah (73.86%), Penang (72.67%), Selangor (72%), Negri Sembilan (68.35%) and Kelantan (60.96%). – August 19, 2023.