KUALA LUMPUR — The son of Javanese parents, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi reached the pinnacle of the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) when he became its seventh president on June 30 this year.

Under normal conditions, he would have been prime minister by virtue of also being the Barisan Nasional chairman.

But BN failed to retain the government after ruling for 61 years and Mr Zahid inherited the unenviable task of keeping the party together and the wolves at bay.

Among the first things the 65-year-old tried to do was to get its lawmakers to sign statutory declarations to remain in the party and promise that the party will be back in business within two years.

Yet less than six months into his presidency, Mr Zahid has had to watch helplessly as Umno members of parliament and assemblymen quit the party one by one until it is now left with 37 from the 54 federal seats it won in the 14th general election.

Added to that is the almost full dissolution of its Sabah chapter last week after four MPs and nine assemblymen quit Umno.

The final straw was on Tuesday (Dec 18) night when the Umno president said he was relinquishing his duties to party No 2 Mohamad Hasan after growing calls from within the party for his resignation.

So, what caused Mr Zahid’s collapse?

International Islamic University Malaysia’s Tunku Mohar Tunku Mohd Mokhtar said: “I think Mr Zahid was unfortunate to take over a party that was demoralised after the defeat of BN in the last general election.

“The party itself is also in denial, believing that it has the support of the Malays. The fact is Umno is a component of Barisan Nasional and while it was the dominant party, it still needed the non-Malay component parties.”

The political science lecturer said many in the party leadership felt that Mr Zahid did not give any clear direction to the party after taking over.

“He wanted to form an alliance with PAS and he also allowed his men to open up discussions with PKR and Bersatu,” said Tunku Mohar.

Mr Zahid surprised everyone in September when he decided to cosy up to arch rivals PAS by attending their annual general meeting.

Although PAS returned the gesture by sending its own delegation to the Umno general assembly, its president, Mr Abdul Hadi Awang, gave it a miss. Also missing for the first time at the Umno gathering was its oldest political ally MCA.

Being the opposition has tested Mr Zahid’s leadership qualities and the calls for his resignation showed that he was not the type of leader who could take followers through uncharted waters.

He also failed to convince the party of its co-operation with PAS.

“And simultaneous ‘negotiations’ with PKR and Bersatu showed that he was still an opportunist,” said Tunku Mohar.

“Apart from attempting back-door comebacks, he has not shown that he can rebuild or try to convince the former components to come back to BN.”

Former Umno deputy Youth chief Senator Khairul Azwan Harun said acting president Mr Mohamad Hasan must now chart a new direction for the party.

“Forget about going into the government coalition for now. Rebuild and strengthen the party first. Also don’t accept those defectors who have deserted the party,” said Mr Khairul.

“We need to relook into the party DNA and strategies to win GE15.”

He said this was a cleansing phase for Umno.

“And hopefully, Mr Mohamad will be able to stop more MPs from leaving.

“But we can’t stop everyone or those who have a personal agenda. Let them go,” said Mr Khairul.

For Mr Khairul, Mr Zahid’s problems were due to the deteriorating support from members after the party elections, his ongoing court battles and the intense factionalism within the party.

“But I must commend Mr Zahid for his big heart. He has displayed exemplary spirit by taking a step back.”

After the elections, Mr Zahid was slapped with 46 charges of criminal breach of trust, bribery and money-laundering.

He could face more charges yet, after anti-graft authorities said on Sunday that they received a complaint against him over alleged money politics in the Umno elections and could commence investigations if the report has merit.

Mr Zahid’s political career began in 1986 when he was appointed political secretary to Najib Razak during the latter’s tenure as youth and sports minister and later as defence minister.

He won his first party elections when he was elected Umno Youth chief in 1996 after winning the Bagan Datuk parliamentary seat in 1995.

Two years later saw Mr Zahid jailed under the Internal Security Act after the turmoil in Umno that saw then deputy president Anwar Ibrahim sacked from the party and jailed for abuse of power.

Then an Mr Anwar loyalist, Mr Zahid was accused of speaking out against Dr Mahathir Mohamad over cronyism and nepotism in the government.

Dr Mahathir, in retaliation, publicised the names of those Malays and Bumiputeras who had received shares and high positions in government-linked companies with Mr Zahid among the beneficiaries.

His political career, however, was unscathed by the political detour and in 1999 and he was accepted back into the Umno fold, but not before blaming the present PKR president Anwar for putting him up to raise the allegations of cronyism and nepotism.

His return from the political brink was complete when he successfully defended the Bagan Datuk seat in 1999.

After winning Bagan Datuk for the third time in 2004, Mr Zahid was appointed deputy tourism minister by then prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

In the political tsunami of 2008, when many of his peers in Umno and BN lost their seats, Mr Zahid managed to cling on to his seat.

His reward was a full cabinet appointment as minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.

In the cabinet reshuffle in 2009, Mr Zahid was appointed defence minister by then prime minister Najib.

After the 2013 elections, he was appointed home minister in a portfolio swap with Mr Hishammuddin Hussein who took over Mr Zahid’s defence portfolio.

His loyalty to Mr Najib and protecting him over the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) financial scandal saw him being appointed deputy prime minister in the July 2015 cabinet reshuffle in place of Mr Muhyiddin Yassin, who was sacked for publicly questioning Mr Najib about the scandal.

Amid mounting calls for his resignation as Umno president now, how Mr Zahid handles this will show the quality of his leadership and that staying in the number one post depends on far more than loyalty and patronage. THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT