Will end to Kedah MB crisis kill off dissent in Umno?


Ahmad Bashah Md Hanifah

Shazwan Mustafa Kamal and Mayuri Mei Lin, Malay Mail Online

Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir’s removal as mentri besar may have ended the crisis within Kedah Umno, but it remains to be seen if the move will silence further dissent within the party.

The intrigue has left political analysts divided on whether it will cause Umno to close ranks after an extended period of internal turmoil or fuel the strife by emboldening more disgruntled members to speak out.

Head of the Merdeka Center polling firm Ibrahim Suffian said that while the Kedah crisis was resolved, the true cost of the ouster may not be realised until several years later.

“I think it will push dissenters in Umno to the margins. While this will allow the party’s leaders to consolidate their position, it will certainly rear its head in the general election],” he told Malay Mail Online when contacted.

Dr Lim Teck Ghee of the Centre for Policy Initiatives (CPI) insisted, however, that Mukhriz’s removal was not the end of the power struggle within Umno.

Rather than scaring off dissenters, he said forcibly removing Mukhriz will provide fresh ammunition for the party’s adversaries both within and without.

“I see the Kedah crisis as further energising the opposition in Umno and the opposition,” he said.

Dr Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, also pointed out that Umno was facing uncharacteristically sustained internal strife.

Aside from Mukhriz, Umno has culled senior and junior leaders for criticising its leadership over the governance of Malaysia. No less than Umno deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was removed as deputy prime minister last year.

While Muhyiddin and Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, who were also dropped from the Cabinet, remain in the party, several dissenters lower down the ranks have been expelled from Umno.

“Dissent has never been a strong streak in Umno. And in the past half a year this has especially been the case,” Oh told Malay Mail Online.

Umno leaders such as Datuk Seri Hasan Malek said that Mukhriz’s successor, Kedah Umno deputy chief Datuk Seri Ahmad Bashah Md Hanifah will be able to unite the party’s state chapter and strengthen Barisan Nasional’s hold on Kedah.

“He is capable. Bashah he’s been with Umno a long time, ever since Umno Youth so I am confident he can put these together and he’s been around for a long and I’m sure he can do a good job,” the Umno supreme council member told Malay Mail Online.

Another senior Umno leader, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, blamed Mukhriz for Umno’s weak presence in Kedah, adding that Ahmad Bashah’s appointment would not have any negative impact on BN.

He also maintained that Mukhriz was rightly removed after the state’s lawmakers communicated their loss of confidence in him to the Kedah regency council.

“Because Mukhriz was never concerned about Kedah Umno.

“As a result, the Kedah Umno itself has actually weakened under him, so now Bashah as the MB and state liaison chief will make Kedah Umno stronger,” he told Malay Mail Online.

Nazri and other Umno leaders were quick to deny rumours that linked Mukhriz’s ouster to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed’s attacks against Umno and the federal government, and stressed that the change in MB was because the former had lost support of the state legislative assembly.

Dr Mahathir is a trenchant critic of Prime Minister Najib over the latter’s handling of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), waging a campaign to demand the latter’s resignation as Umno president.

After announcing his resignation on Wednesday, Mukhriz warned Umno that he will be more outspoken against the leadership now that he no longer needed to be concerned about his position.



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