KUALA LUMPUR - After years of festering internal discord following Umno's shock election defeat in 2018, party leaders have been working to bridge the divide between two main factions in its ranks ahead of Malaysia's next general election.
Umno's most senior supreme council member Zambry Kadir told The Straits Times that a consultative committee, comprising members of the camps of both Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, have met twice since last month to hash out issues such as food security and cost of living.
"The purpose of the committee is to discuss government policy with regard to political and economic issues in the best interest of the party and the public," Datuk Seri Zambry said.
The Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) government counts Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) and Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) as strange bedfellows in the ruling coalition.
Dr Zambry, who is also BN's secretary-general, represents the so-called "PWTC cluster", named after the location of the party headquarters, while Rural Development Minister Mahdzir Khalid speaks for the "Putrajaya cluster" of those who are tied to the current administration.
Both sides of the divide are cognisant of the need to present a united front to voters ahead of an election due by September 2023. Indeed, the timing of polls is the main point of contention within Umno.
The PWTC cluster - which includes former premier Najib Razak, whose ouster in the 2018 loss drove the first wedge into Umno - wants an election held as soon as possible, ostensibly to capitalise on the momentum from whopping two-thirds majority wins at the Melaka and Johor state elections in recent months.
But critics believe leaders like Zahid, who is facing a corruption charge, and Najib, who was convicted of graft in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal but is appealing against the judgment, are rushing for polls to be held before their trials are concluded in hopes that a return to dominance for Umno will influence their cases. Zahid's case will be heard till November, while Najib's final appeal is being heard in August.
The Putrajaya cluster prefers the general election to happen next year, with Datuk Seri Ismail stating that the government should see out a period of surging inflation before testing its popularity. As premier, the Constitution gives him discretion on whether to advise the King to dismiss Parliament before it automatically dissolves in July next year.
Dr Zambry has said that BN has begun pre-election programmes in anticipation of the nation going to the polls in the third or fourth quarter of this year.
The rift within Umno traces back to when Najib, who is still influential within the party, was forced to resign as Umno president four years ago after the election defeat.
Zahid was promoted from deputy to president after staving off a challenge from former youth chief and now health minister Khairy Jamaluddin, who had promised wide-ranging reforms to the structure of the grand old party which had lost power for the first time since Malaysia's independence six decades ago.
When the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition government collapsed in February 2020, Umno decided to support Bersatu chief Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister.
But within the same year, cracks widened again as the PWTC cluster agitated to depose Tan Sri Muhyiddin by working with opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.
The Putrajaya cluster decried such a move and insisted on continuing to govern with Bersatu.
However, Zahid's faction finally rallied enough MPs to withdraw support for Mr Muhyiddin in August 2021. Nonetheless, Umno vice-president Ismail still led most BN members of Parliament in refusing to leave the government.
When Mr Muhyiddin resigned after losing majority support in Parliament, the same MPs and parties that formed his administration reassembled to back Mr Ismail, who was the most senior Umno official acceptable as premier to other parties, given Zahid's legal issues.
Since then, the government and party have held differing views on issues such as the timing of elections, allowing workers to access retirement savings towards the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the much-delayed deployment of the next-generation 5G mobile network.
It was only in April this year that Umno's supreme council decided to "suggest" Mr Ismail continue as PM after an election, while deciding not to extend a clause in a bipartisan deal reached last September with the opposition that bars the premier from dissolving Parliament before August.
