Umno’s merry-go-round

In the Mahathir-Najib conflict, it has become difficult to determine where allegiances lie.

COMMENT

Merry-go-rounds are usually fun, but not for long. After a while, going round in never ending circles will get tiresome, much like what’s happening in Umno.

In the grand drama that has Prime Minister Najib Razak and former premier Mahathir Mohamad playing the lead roles, there is a large supporting cast. What complicates the plot of the play is the changing allegiances of some of the supporting actors. This is both thrilling and exasperating to the audience.

Perhaps the most prominent of the supporting actors is Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who right now holds the distinction of being considered Mahathir’s choice as Najib’s replacement. Muhyiddin has made it clear where he stands in the conflict, even if he has chosen to hide his motives behind a thin veil of diplomacy.

Other members of the supporting cast are not quite as resolute. This is what gives us the never ending cycle that brings us back to the same starting and ending points. Now, such indeterminate resolve is less than likely to inspire either Najib or Mahathir and, as such, must be a major topic of conversation among confidantes of both men when they are considering who will share the spoils of the victory.

Take, for instance, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. The Home Minister has projected himself as a take-no-prisoners strongman with a firm, albeit misguided, will to make full use of the law to strike down opponents of the administration. It was thought that he was firmly on Najib’s side at first, but then he appeared at that fateful meeting in Janda Baik where Muhyiddin practically announced where he stands in the conflict. This led to speculation that Zahid was on the DPM’s side.

The Prime Minister’s cousin, Hishammuddin Hussein, was also thought to be switching allegiances from the Najib camp to Muhyiddin’s when he released a statement critical of Najib’s Achilles’ Heel, 1MDB. It seemed like Najib’s Cabinet was imploding, and the air was thick with talk that the Prime Minister would have to step down soon.

But then came the revelation that both Zahid and Hishammuddin were meeting with the Prime Minister in Saudi Arabia, leading to another round of speculation that the two had pulled an Ibrahim Ali and frog-jumped out of Muhyiddin’s camp back into Najib’s welcoming arms.

This is the intrigue of the play. We can no longer tell whose allegiances lie where, and that bodes ill for both Najib and Mahathir. How do you know whom you can trust when the vultures flit from carcass to carcass to grab whatever they can?

The Umno leadership is playing a merry-go-round, and we who are watching are beginning to get bored of the garish designs and repetitive music.

The victor will have another dilemma on his hands when the battle is over. It is, after all, hard to be a leader if you can never know for sure who among your men are loyal and who are not.