Umno returning to power in 2 or 3 GEs a realistic target, say analysts

August 26, 2024

Umno returning to power in 2 or 3 GEs a realistic target, say analysts

PETALING JAYA: Umno vice-president Johari Ghani’s target for Umno to return to political dominance after two or three general elections is a realistic target, say analysts who believe this shows the party leadership’s awareness that they can no longer be arrogant.

Tawfik Yaakub, a political analyst from Universiti Malaya (UM), welcomed Johari’s statement and praised him for his bravery in admitting Umno will need a long time to “fully recover”.

“If Umno remains arrogant and claims strength merely based on its place in the unity government, it will face harsher trials in the 16th general election (GE16),” he told FMT.

Tawfik said Umno will need to refresh its leadership and called for its leaders aged 60 and above to give way to new blood.

“The old leaders must make way for newer faces. Umno also needs to change its electoral system from one based on representation to direct nominations for its leadership,” he said.

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Meanwhile, Ariff Aizuddin from Universiti Teknologi Mara (UTM) said Umno also needs to win both Malay and non-Malay hearts.

“Umno can use this time to think about why the formerly dominant party was pushed out by voters and conduct various post-mortems to identify the point at which they lost support.

“This will also make the party more humble and open to criticism,” he said.

Ariff said the next three general elections will be critical for the party as the public will be watching their every move.

“As such, Umno must renew its narrative of struggle and mobilisation, and not be fully reliant on the Malay-Muslim agenda,” he said.

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Ariff added that Umno should be friendly and inclusive, and take a page out of Pakatan Harapan’s experiences.

“(Look at) how they have fought for the public’s welfare and have not been obsessed with divisive politics and the Malays to the detriment of other more critical aspects, such as the economy,” he said.

Yesterday, in his winding-up speech at the Umno general assembly, Johari said both the party’s leadership and grassroots must fully utilise this long period of recovery, including to apologise to the Malays for their mistakes in administration.