With their backs against the wall, Umno leaders double down on the race card

The United Malays National Organization (Umno) held its annual General Assembly (GA) over the final weekend of September. During both days of the GA, I spoke to various party members, observed the proceedings and listened to various speeches.

It is quite clear that party leaders believe Umno is being backed into a corner. What is more significant is how they are doubling down on the race card in a bid to remain politically relevant.

During the GA, Party president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi argued that Malays are victims of discrimination by other races – particularly in the private sector.

Other Umno leaders condemned the increasingly frequent discussion of Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender rights in political discourse as a manifestation of liberalism’s threat to Islam.

Dr Zahid also criticised the apparent growth of Shia Islam, which has historically been persecuted in Malaysia. One Umno leader used his speech to proclaim “Hancur Syiah” (destroy Shias).

The timing of their criticisms is important, intended to suggest that these trends have emerged under the ascension of the ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition.

More precisely, Umno’s loss in the May 9 general election becomes framed as not just a rejection of the party, but a growing refusal by the electorate to protect the racial and religious rights of Malays.

The strategy seems to be to construct post-GE14 Malaysia as a fertile ground for the normalisation of Islamophobia and ‘Melayufobia’ (Malay-phobia), with PH to be blamed for this.

Umno has taken this route because its traction among centrist voters has further eroded since the elections.

Recognising this, the leadership feels that it has little choice but to double down on racial and religious conservatism in order to push mainstream politics further to the right.

To counter the apparent prevalence of the two phobias, the party’s leadership has argued that returning Umno to government before the next election is imperative.

Speculation within the party is rife that Dr Zahid has made overtures to Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s (PKR) incoming president, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, to break away from PH and enter into an alliance with Umno.

One Umno member I spoke with estimated the number of parliamentary seats controlled by the ‘Anwar faction’ in PKR to be close to 30.

Another grassroots member suggested that Umno, PKR, and the Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) could form an alliance to be the government in the near future with support from parties in Sabah and Sarawak.

Dr Zahid too repeatedly used the phrase ‘government-in-waiting’ to describe BN.

Dr Zahid is worried that more Umno Members of Parliament (MPs) – unaccustomed to opposition politics and used to the privileges of governance – will quit the party.

This will drastically weaken the low level of support he has within the party. Already, five MPs have quit.

Even though former Umno Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin has been openly criticising the party leadership, Dr Zahid has refrained from cracking down on dissent because his hands are tied.

For one, he risks losing the faction of MPs who support Mr Khairy should he react strongly. As difficult as it may be, manoeuvering to return the party to government remains a priority for Dr Zahid.

This also explains why he has been aggressively courting PAS since becoming the party’s president.

During the GA, numerous leaders claimed PAS to be Umno’s natural ‘friend’.

Umno Secretary-General Datuk Seri Annuar Musa stated that both parties ought to put their turbulent disputes behind them and come together to serve the Malay community.

While Umno delegates and members received PAS representatives who attended the GA warmly, there is no consensus among party members on a possible alliance with the Islamist party.

Beyond Mr Khairy’s open condemnations of Dr Zahid’s push to align Umno with PAS, some members do not believe that PAS can be trusted to be a reliable partner.

These individuals believe that PAS is used to being in the opposition and is no rush to form the government.

Yet, Dr Zahid has little choice but to court PAS. Given that both Umno and PAS were by far the best performing parties with conservative Malays, Dr Zahid cannot afford to compete with PAS.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s Malay rights party, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, performed poorly in GE14 and is far too weak to realistically take on Umno.

PAS is therefore Umno’s biggest competitor. Recognising this, PAS has remained fairly non-committal to Dr Zahid’s overtures.

It would rather wait for Dr Zahid’s hand to weaken – perhaps after he loses a few more MPs – before writing terms of an alliance which disproportionately favours PAS and its ideological vision for Malaysia.

This would also explain why Dr Zahid and his team of leaders were compelled to use the GA to talk up the party’s 3.6 million membership, describe its expansive grassroots reach, and underscore the fact that Umno is the single largest political entity in the country.

These statistics are all true. However, the context within which they were articulated reflects a leadership that overemphasised Umno’s size in order to veil worries that weaknesses inherent in the party may prove increasingly difficult to cope with.

To be sure, Umno is far from a monolithic party.

Many younger members in particular disagree with the path Dr Zahid has chosen.

Some of the older members, too, are frustrated with Umno’s trajectory.

Dr Zahid has stated that he will welcome criticism from members who approach him privately.

Yet, the methods he has adopted to force a show of strength amidst bubbling weaknesses suggests their concerns will likely fall on deaf ears.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Prashant Waikar is a Research Analyst with the Malaysia Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University.