Umno's unity at test ahead of state elections
SYDI ALIF17 Jan 2023 08:00am
From left: Ahmad Maslan, Zahid Hamidi and Mohamad Hasan at Umno General Assembly 2022.
Political analyst at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Professor Dr Neilson Ilan Mesrat, who acknowledged that the recent assembly seemed quite heated due to factions within the party.
"It is undesired for Umno as a strong, giant, influential party in the country to have such an ill-matter surrounding them as it may leave an impact.
"So we hope the tension can be reduced. I think the motion to not contest the top two posts was based on the dynamic or what happened within the party itself," he said on the controversial decision for the two top post in Umno not to be contested.
The comes ahead of several moves within Umno such as London Move, Kinabalu Move to topple the leadership.
"The factions are there. We hope the spirit of unity is not only expressed by the goverment alone, but also within political parties because we are in need of the national political stability," he said.
Meanwhile, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Political Sciences senior lecturer Professor Dr Sivamurugan Pandian was not surprised by the presence of both support and objection towards the proposal to not contest the top two posts.
It's just that when Umno's election was postponed, he said it should have led to the process of democratisation which was the reason why the party election was delayed six months after the general election in the first place.
"The dilemma or polemic as of now is to ensure that it would not give rise to division because every time, around an election or matters that are not pleasing to some groups, it will leave an impact to the party.
He further said the party needs to reduce tension between the factions.
"If it failed to do so, there is a huge consequence that awaits the party because those who voiced an objection towards the no-contest motion were those who have their own supporters, those who used to contest and those who had held posts in the party," he added.
Therefore, the party needs to solve the issue wisely so that it will not be extended and will not interrupt the process of uniting members of the party.
"The challenge is substantially huge, not to mention those who expressed dissatisfaction.
"Would they want to be fired? Would they want to join other party? Would they want to establish their own party? We have seen this happened," he said on the possible reasons.
On the other hand, Head of Heritage and Sociocultural History Cluster of the National Professors Council (MPN), Professor Datuk Dr Zainal Kling believed that observers as well as the citizens hoped that Umno would re-establish itself especially in terms of leadership, which he found unpleasant as most of the division leaders had chosen to extend the current leadership.
"While many figures were ready to serve as new leaders, division leaders' choice not renew the leadership does not solve Umno's problem," he said, referring to unity in Umno.
