Be out with it. Zahid Hamidi is a Malaysian with Javanese root to Ponogoro. Yours truly to Kendal and Ceribon.
Despite established as a major Malay sub-ethnic group in Malaysia, Javanese remained stereotyped as that obedient, and hard-working immigrant labourers.
Javanese are non-confrontational, tolerant and patience thus easy prey for ridicule. More so, they refrain from slighting others and expressed their disagreement, and anger in mild and cryptic manner that they tend to be misunderstood.
However, their rural good natured character should not be underestimated and taken for granted.
Last Friday was an occasion whereby the tolerance of a Javanese reached its limit and he turned decisive when it warrants one.
To understand Zahid's decisive and drastic action for the surgical clean-up on UMNO, the quote from this blog's January 18th posting entitled, "UMNO will continue to remain relevant" below provide a perspective:
UMNO is in a war mode to survive and it is the only way to address the indiscipline, insubordination and betrayals prevalent in the party.
Revolting to some, but it needs a robust, unpredictable, and if necessary, brutal leader like Zahid to carry it through this phase.
Twitterfinance wrote of the surprised internal clean-up. Its reproduced with several presumptions corrected below:
Live By The Sword, Die By The Sword – Why Khairy’s Sacking & Hishammuddin’s Suspension Are Long Overdue
January 29th, 2023 by financetwitter
Zahid Hamidi would have become a great surgeon had he not joined politics. With great precision, the president of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) boldly and decisively removed two biggest cancer cells from the party – Khairy Jamaluddin and Hishammuddin Hussein. The decision on Friday (Jan 27) effectively eliminates all Zahid’s opponents in the party.
While the Malaysia’s oldest political party has sacked Khairy and supreme council member Noh Omar, former defence minister Hishammuddin was suspended for a whopping 6 years. In total, almost 50 UMNO leaders were either fired or suspended. Of course, they have tried to put up a brave face, saying “this is not the end, but merely a beginning” and all sorts of self-comforting quotes.
Self-comforting but surprised
Khairy announced he is “unbowed, unbent, unbroken”. Yet, in a series of Instagram stories on Saturday (Jan 28), he whined and bitched how he was unilaterally and unfairly sacked. He complained that despite his loyalty to the party for 23 years, he had not been given a show cause letter, let alone disciplinary hearing. Hilariously, before his sacking, he bragged that he was ready to face any disciplinary action – including being sacked.
Hishammuddin too was stunned over his suspension. In a TikTok video posted at about 8pm Saturday (Jan 28) night, he claimed he would not be broken, along with a quote – “What has happened will not break my spirit to continue my struggle for my religion, race and country”. Equally hilarious, he too had challenged Zahid to sack him a couple of weeks ago – if the UMNO president dares.
Now that both UMNO warlords have been punished, they started to pretend how innocent they are and how they had been victimised by their party president. In truth, Khairy and Hishammuddin deserved to be sacked after what they had done to the party. The only reason Hishammuddin and his gang were suspended instead of axed is because they are Members of Parliament.
It’s not a coincidence that all those who were expelled like Khairy and Noh do not contribute any parliamentary seat to UMNO.
Noh Omar, a well-known gangster, thinking Zahid could not do any worse, stood up during the supreme council meeting and challenged the party president to sack him instead of suspended for 6 years. Zahid gladly complied – “If that’s what you want, you got it”.
Not even former lame duck Prime Minister Ismail Sabri, one of three UMNO vice-presidents, could pressure Zahid against punishing Khairy and Hishammuddin. The punishments might not have followed the necessary process, but Zahid’s action was not illegal. Some five supreme council members disagreed with the disciplinary decision, but Zahid had already decided.
Bigger gangster
Mr Noh probably had forgotten that his boss was a bigger gangster when he tried to play reverse psychology by saying he would rather be sacked and suspended. Mr Khairy, an Oxford graduate, probably thought he was too intelligent for his boss to sack him. Mr Hishammuddin most likely believed he was too powerful and influential to be punished.
However, they have all miscalculated and misread Mr Zahid. The UMNO president is not a master strategist like former PM Mahathir Mohamad. He is not a snake oil salesman like Najib Razak, the crooked ex-PM currently serving 12 years in prison for looting the state investment fund 1MDB. And he is certainly not a politician with patience equals to God’s like Anwar Ibrahim.
NOTE: They thought Zahid is perpetually all talk but not rutless enough to take action. Its a Javanese weakness to "tak sampai hati".
Contrary to the perception built, Najib was convicted by a bias and preset judge line-up, but crooked he is not to his diehards. They standby his long list of well intended achievements and innovative policies.
The absence of a list of key witnesses raised questions on the validity of the evidences presented in the case.
Technicalities used to disallow evidences on Zeti and Judge Nazlan together with Federal Court proceeded without proper counsel for Najib raised suspicion of high-level collusion to fix the outcome against Najib.
Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is just the “Big Boss” of “Tiga Line Gangster”. So, like Al Capone, he will do what a gangster boss would normally do when faced with rebels, snitchers and betrayers within the organization. Either he exterminates those disloyal to him, or get killed eventually. He does not want to waste time looking over his shoulders for backstabbers and betrayers.
And this is where Zahid is different from Anwar, who had stubbornly and stupidly chosen to keep and trust his deputy Azmin Ali – despite numerous warnings of treachery and betrayal. When then-former PKR president Azmin finally switched sides in Feb 2020, leading to the collapse of Pakatan Harapan government, Anwar cried a river. Zahid has no plan to repeat Anwar’s mistake.
Hishamuddin the traitor
Speculations that action would be taken against UMNO traitors, saboteurs and provocateurs had already begun after the 15th General Election in November 2022. Behind Zahid’s back, traitor Hishammuddin quietly instigated 10 UMNO-led Barisan Nasional MPs to support rival Perikatan Nasional chairman Muhyiddin Yassin as 10th Prime Minister after the election that produced a hung Parliament.
Yes, back in Nov 21, Hishammuddin said he was willing to be removed by the party, rather than cooperate with Pakatan Harapan in forming a new government. Having signed statutory declaration (SD) to support Muhyiddin, he was leading 10 MPs ready to cross over to the enemy’s camp, only to retract the SDs after Zahid warned they could lose their parliamentary seats in violation of anti-hopping law.
The same anti-hopping law which saw Hishammuddin chicken out some three months ago is the same reason Zahid could not sack him on Friday. If he is sacked, he could keep his seat and happily join opposition Perikatan Nasional. On the other hand, he will lose the seat if he quits UMNO over his 6-year suspension. To keep the seat within UMNO, Zahid cleverly suspends Hishammuddin.
Now, the cousin of Najib is trapped for the next 6 years. He could neither challenge Zahid nor leave the party. There’s no guarantee Hishammuddin could retain his Sembrong seat if a by-election is called if he quits UMNO. The fact that he won in the recent election suggests that it was a stronghold of UMNO. Therefore, UMNO supporters would not accept a traitor if he jumps ship to Muhyiddin’s party.
But Hishammuddin’s treachery and betrayal started as early as after the May 2018 General Election. After Barisan Nasional lost power for the first time in 61 years since independence, he cowardly ran away, refusing to even defend his precious UMNO vice-president post. Worse, he began sucking up to PM Mahathir Mohamad, who successfully led Pakatan Harapan to the historic victory.
NOTE: Hishamuddin personally persuaded and enticed UMNO MPs and leaders to jump ship to PPBM after GE14 loss.
Prior to GE13 and 14, he was given leeways by Najib to align candidate lists to the advantage of his VP bid in UMNO.
The meddling contributed to UMNO's poor GE14 showing in three stronghold states.
Despite the advantage, he came last for the post-GE13 party election and could only surpassed Mukhriz's ragtag campaign team by 10 votes. Imagine had there not been direct assistance from two state Sultans.
After GE14, he neither defended his VP post nor accepted invitation to run for Deputy President in fear of members' anger to his repeated meddling.
It did not stopped him from meddling and undermining the party leadership in Sheraton move and latest post GE15 support for PN.
Having deserted UMNO when the party was at its lowest point, Hishammuddin only came back after it returned to power as one of governing partners in the loosely glued Perikatan Nasional backdoor government in March 2020 – comprising UMNO, Muhyiddin-led Bersatu and extremist PAS Islamist party. He again tried to leave UMNO after the party performed terribly in the Nov 2022 national election.
When UMNO lost power in 2018, traitor Hishammuddin instigated dozens of UMNO MPs to switch sides to Mahathir in an attempt to weaken his own party. When UMNO lost more seats in 2022, the same traitor instigated 10 Barisan Nasional MPs to switch sides to Muhyiddin in an attempt to destroy his own party. Exactly why should Zahid keep a Trojan horse like Hishammuddin?
Clearly, Hishammuddin isn’t as loyal to UMNO as he tries to hoodwink the UMNO-Malays. In fact, he is worse than his cousin Najib. At least, Najib did not badmouth his own party’s president, let alone plotting with the enemies who wanted to destroy and swallow UMNO, before taking over its assets, grassroots and machinery. Hishammuddin’s loyalty is with Muhyiddin and Bersatu, not UMNO anymore.
KJ's campaign sabotage
Like the ambitious Hishammuddin, Khairy too wanted to become the youngest prime minister. He openly declared during 2022 General Election campaign that he is ready to lead the country and become prime minister. It was merely a gimmick to win Sungai Buloh parliamentary seat, which he did not succeed. He was deliberately given the tough seat to end his political career.
Accusing UMNO of having gone astray under Zahid leadership, Mr Khairy was admitting that the party has become rotten and corrupted. He tried to paint himself as a reformist, copying a page from Anwar Ibrahim’s “Reformasi” playbook. He must have thought voters were too stupid to remember how he kept quiet as his former boss – Najib Razak – helped himself to billions of dollars in the infamous 1MDB scandal.
He also assumed the people were too gullible to realize how he, as Minister of Health, had given instruction to free Najib by relocating the crook to the Cheras Rehabilitation Hospital on Sept 17, 2022, allowing the prisoner to stay in VVIP ward– till the plan was exposed by an anonymous. Khairy claimed Najib needed physiotherapy, but Najib only suffered high blood pressure, which has nothing to do with physiotherapy.
NOTE:
On the contrary, magnanimity is not Khairy's second nature.
Sense of gratitude he has none.
Crucially, it was under Khairy’s leadership that Pharmaniaga, despite its lack of expertise, was allowed to rebottle and repackage Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine at a time when people were dying so that some cronies could profit from it. It’s absolutely funny that Khairy wanted to clean up UMNO only after he was out of favour and no longer a government minister.
And you don’t need a genius to tell the actual mastermind behind the civil servant of the Ministry of Youth and Sports involved in RM100 millionscandal when he helmed the ministry. The perception that Oxford-educated Khairy was relatively clean and efficient is largely because 99% of UMNO leaders and ministers were clueless, incompetent, corrupt and not highly educated.
Make no mistake – Khairy and Hishammuddin were not punished because they challenged Zahid’s presidency. They were sacked and suspended for betraying the party – destroying UMNO internally by working the enemies like Bersatu and PAS, as well as sabotaging Barisan Nasional candidates and campaign during election by sponsoring independent candidates as in the case of Noh Omar.
Hishammuddin, who is also the grandson of Onn Jaafar who founded UMNO in 1946, and the eldest son of 3rd Prime Minister Hussein Onn, thought he belonged to an UMNO blue-blood hence “untouchable”. Likewise, Khairy, who is the son-in-law of 6th Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, thought he was part of the elite club and also untouchable. But both arrogant warlords hadn’t a clue what Zahid was capable of.
Ironically, Hishammuddin and Khairy were the same UMNO racists who happily waved their respective “Keris” (Malay dagger) during the party general assembly in despicable attempts to frighten and threaten minorities Chinese and Indians. Today, that same weapon – the keris symbol on UMNO flags – has come back to end their political career.
Both Khairy and Hishammuddin would instantly withdraw support for the Anwar-led unity government if they managed to topple Zahid. Their loyalty has been with Muhyiddin since they were bribed with senior ministry portfolios in March 2020.
True, Zahid isn’t as educated as Khairy and not as eloquent as Hishammuddin. But at least Zahid refused to surrender to Mahathir during UMNO’s darkest days.
Other Articles That May Interest You but take note it needs fact checking…
Underestimate a Jawa at one's own peril.
After the clean-up, UMNO need the leadership to rebuild itself. With widespread pessimism of the voting public and internal disenchantment internally, it will be challenging.
Anticipating an UMNO 3.0 to rise from the ashes of Mahathir's destructive past on the original UMNO and the UMNO 2.0 created to his whims and fancy.
UMNO 3.0 should strive for a progressive and dynamic Malay and Pribumi to free them from the shackles of feudel psychology of Malay eliticism and stagnancy of orthodox Islam.
Hishamuddin, Khairy and others are necessary collateral damages for UMNO to extricate from the cancerous, corrupt and self serving factional politics beseiging the party for decades.