THE one question that lingers in every detractor’s mind now is whether defiant UMNO Youth chief Datuk Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh would hang up his boots voluntarily or wait for the sacking order now that his boss has rejected any backdoor manoeuvre which could lead to the collapse of the Madani government.
Instead, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who is both the UMNO president and Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman has reiterated his commitment to be part of the unity government at least till the end of the term in line with UMNO’s principle not to cause political instability.
Such stance taken at the UMNO’s political bureau’s meeting on Monday night (Jan 5) runs afoul with the idea mooted by Akmal that UMNO should leave the Madani government and re-group with PAS under the revived Muafakat Nasional (MN) in the name of Muslim ummah (solidarity).
“We don’t wish to indulge in nostalgia by using any name that was previously proposed and nothing has been finalised yet,” Zahid had told the media. “That is why the details are important as we don’t want to be bitten by the same snake a second time on the same spot.”
Two acts of defiance
In fact, talking about scoring own goals, UMNO’s communications director Datuk Lokman Noor Adam revealed that the staunch defender of race and religion has lied at least on two occasions, the latest by claiming that Zahid had given green light for his Saturday’s (Jan 3) UMNO’s Direction in the Unity Government special convention.
The occasion cited by the UMNO supreme council member is that of a past incident in Kepala Batas involving the controversial display of an upside-down Jalur Gemilang whereby Akmal allegedly broke a promise made directly to Zahid.
This, according to Lokman, raised serious questions about discipline and leadership within the party.
Commenting on Zahid’s latest statement, Lokman who had previously been at loggerheads with Akmal jibed his party junior that “this has destroyed the hope of some quarters who expect UMNO to embark on a tebuk atap (backdoor) manoeuvre or to become an opposition force”.
“PAS only wishes to cooperate with UMNO to overthrow the (Madani) government in the quest to save their leaders who’re facing numerous charges (mostly on slanders) in court … They can’t wait for another two years, hence they want the government to collapse today,” he further elaborated in a live video last night (Jan 6).
“Nevertheless, UMNO can always re-look into the proposal of forging a partnership after the 16th General Election (GE16).”
Interestingly, the 38-year-old Russia-trained medical doctor has either taken a defiant stance or has wrongly interpreted his boss’ message as an “aye” to what he described as “fruits of our special convention”. He thus penned on his Facebook page:
“Thank you, DS Zahid Hamidi for agreeing to several proposals from the special youth convention today, ie on (i) cooperation to unite the Malays begins with the two largest Malay parties, namely UMNO and PAS; and (ii) 2) rejecting any backdoor manoeuvre against the existing government.
“God willing, the party (UMNO) can start by examining how to work together from now on for the sake of unifying the Malays. This is the time 🫡”
Whatever the interpretation is, the consolation for the Merlimau state assemblyman is that his “swaying to PAS” call will be pitted/tested against that of his party supremo who is also the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) at the looming UMNO annual general assembly from Jan 14-17.
What is obvious is that Zahid has to be cautious in directly reprimanding Akmal given he himself is facing tremendous pressure from UMNO grassroots to vacate his post following failure to upkeep his pre-2022 national polls’ “no Anwar, no DAP” pledge.
Moreover, he is also walking on thin ice by having to pledge his allegiance to his mentor and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim given his DNAA (discharge not amounting to acquittal) from 47 prima facie charges encompassing criminal breach of trust (CBT), graft and money laundering. – Jan 7, 2026
