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‘For the Love of UMNO, Zahid Must Go’, say veterans.
By Mihar Dias
(C) Copyright January 2022
We got into a conversation with three UMNO veterans a day after the High Court ordered Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, their party President to enter his defence on 47 charges of corruption, criminal breach of trust and money laundering.
These old loyal supporters of the party (who shall remain anonymous) told us it was time for Zahid to leave because “We love the party. UMNO is worth a lot more than its president. Presidents come and presidents go but the party must go on!”
We were not sure how many more were thinking like those three close friends when the judge said the prosecution had established a prima facie case against Zahid.
But to these veterans, it simply meant based on first impression, all charges had merits or were accepted as correct until proven otherwise by Zahid and his lawyers.
While it would still be up to his lawyers to raise doubts on what had been established by the prosecution, they said, many UMNO members had made up their minds that Zahid ought to resign from his post as president.
“That would be good enough for me and my friends”, the veteran added because if “he continued it would appear we are endorsing him and his misdeeds!”.
A slightly younger veteran (in his 70s) said, “Don’t you see if there were doubts, or the charges were simply trumped up just to frame Zahid like some UMNO members were saying, the judge would have dismissed them and he would not have bothered asking our president to enter his defence”.
Obviously, as in all criminal cases the burden of proving rested on the prosecution which had done a great job convincing the judge, beyond reasonable doubt that all 47 charges merited to go to the next stage when Zahid’s team would be tasked to submit their defence.
Then we went into a discussion about whether we should assume that Zahid was already guilty. Technically and legally we agreed, we could not and ought not to pass such a verdict until the court decided.
However, for now, all 47 charges looked convincing enough for our loyal UMNO veterans to pass their judgement upon their President. That was the main reason why they had asked Zahid to step aside.
Besides, they told us that it was embarrassing to have a sitting president of the party who was charged and was ordered to submit his defence on 47 charges.
If it was one charge they said, they could still endure it but it had become impossible for them to have any more faith in Zahid.
“You see, Zahid, like many leaders, thought if he could keep drawing upon his charisma for support by UMNO members he could continue to stay on as president of the party. But he did not know that charisma was just like a bank balance. The more you draw the less you’ll have left. Lately, he might have very little charisma left to win support from UMNO members who could be convinced of his innocence”.
We then talked about what the future would look like without Zahid as President of UMNO. Our veterans said since “Tunku we had seen so many already. They did what they could to lead the party. We were with them. But when it came to mismanagement and criminal acts it would be hard for us to support. Remember Harun Idris? Does he go to jail? Anwar Ibrahim? He went to Sungai Buluh. Khir Toyo? He too was imprisoned. Mike Tyson was lucky when he was stopped in Australia over the carrying of cash. He almost went to jail too!”
“You know how he got out of that case?” Asked another veteran.
“Yea he said he went to Malay school and didn’t understand English. The judge believed him!” The three laughed.
So, to these three UMNO veterans, the party was more important than the presidents. To them, others would step into those shoes easily enough. But to continue to have a leader who was charged in court would further tarnish the image of the party.
But then again, they said “We’re veterans. Like old soldiers, we no longer have the means to do anything about the party. In all fairness, it would be up to the voting members at the AGM!”
Mihar Dias is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
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