Umno’s Game of Thrones

By admin-s On Nov 25, 2014

We may see, in the next few days, the beginnings of Najib’s fall, if not his last stand. Watch out for moves by Zahid and Muhyiddin.

Scott Ng, FMT

The Umno general assembly, which begins today, promises to be one of the more interesting in recent memory. Think of Game of Thrones, less the supernatural enemies, but with plenty of dirty secrets and slimy politics and you’ve pretty much got an idea of what’s happening behind the scenes in Malaysia’s biggest political party.

The assembly represents a crux, an important focal point for Umno moving forward, and what affects Umno affects the rest of Malaysia. We’ve known for quite a while that Mahathir Mohamad has been chomping at the bit to unseat Prime Minister Najib Razak, and the power players in Umno have been working at positioning themselves to present to Mahathir that they are the best possible candidates for the Prime Minister’s seat.

The two most noticeable names on that list are Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Hishammuddin Hussein. Less noticeable, perhaps is Muhyiddin Yassin.

We’ve noted the quiet power play of Hishammuddin in earlier columns, and the possible Mahathir nod he received through Abdul Kadir Jasin. He’s also been receiving a lot of positive press coverage recently, which may indicate that for the time being he has decided to side with the current Prime Minister.

On the other hand, we have Zahid. After a white hot and controversial period that saw him pander to the extreme right wing of the party, Zahid seems almost muzzled for a while until, a couple of days ago, he made it clear with a startling statement that we shouldn’t ever consider him out of the equation. He said no one should consider Umno posts as heirloom rights, which is as direct as you can get to warning Najib and Hishammuddin against being too presumptuous. Hishammuddin is Najib’s cousin and son of former Umno president Hussein Onn.

That may be Zahid’s way of answering the big question of why he has been blacked out over the past month and relegated to menial tasks , such as investigating the issue of foreign workers in Cameron Highlands.

Speaking of questions, there is still the lingering issue of Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. Who was he really addressing when he said “change or be changed”? That statement is perplexing; it could be aimed at the party president instead of the party, and may be the final warning from Mahathir himself. Interestingly enough, despite being first in line to inherit the throne should Najib be overthrown, Muhyiddin appears to express no ambition of becoming Prime Minister. But don’t be fooled; as a politician, he is as wily as they come. And like Zahid, he probably has Mahathir’s backing.

After all, power is power, no matter which method is used to obtain it. Some prefer intrigue or the sword; others are perfectly happy to seem to have stumbled into it. Speaking of intrigue, we must be on the watch for Mahathir’s war of subterfuge at the assembly.

The high level of the great game that will be played on the field is that of Najib’s political survival versus Mahathir’s agenda to install a proxy that will guide Malaysia back along the path he set it on all those years ago. Through their speeches and debates, the delegates will announce whose side they stand on – via support or opposition of Najib’s programmes.