If you remember, just a week or so ago, UMNO Negeri Sembilan had requested to meet with the Yam Tuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan to form the new state government.
For context, after withdrawing support from the PH led Negeri Sembilan state government and joining forces with PN, Umno controlled 19 seats in the state assembly compared to PH's 17, and thus was likely seeking an appointment with the Yam Tuan to seek consent to toppling the PH led government and form a new one.
That meeting with Yam Tuan however, did not happen.
Instead, another meeting occurred with Umno President Zahid Hamidi. At the end of that meeting, Zahid will announce that the Negeri Sembilan Aduns will not pursue their intent to overthrow the Negeri Sembilan state government and instead continue to support the Aminuddin led PH state government.
Right after Zahid made his announcement, the unofficial leader of the 14 Aduns, Jalaluddin Alias, will make a conflicting announcement, by stating that though Umno Negeri Sembilan will not attempt to overthrow the state government, it is still withdrawing its support from it, and will now join the opposition, instead of continuing to serve as partner in the government.
Now despite the opposing and bewildering statements by Zahid and Jalaluddin, we can at least be rest assured that there will be no attempt to topple the state government right ?
Well, yes, the plot to overthrow the state government is cancelled, or at least , postponed, for now.
So everything is settled for the time being then ?
Well no.
I think at the cost of stopping the overthrow of the state government and maintain Umno's partnership with PH, Zahid might have committed political suicide, by kick-starting a movement within Umno to remove him as president instead.
Why ?
Because the leader of a party is supposed to win for his or her party, not win for a rival party.
That Zahid looked more concerned about the victory of PH than the victory of Umno, might be the last straw for Umno, that has long been frustrated by Zahid's leadership.
As it is, Zahid cannot be said to be a very popular leader of Umno.
Despite being quite, if not very unpopular President of Umno, he has still managed to retain his position as the president of Umno, by expelling or suspending his rivals within Umno and by postponing Umno elections.
Zahid has been leading Umno not because Umno members believe that Zahid has the interest of Umno at heart or because they believe that he is capable of leading them to victory, but mostly because they do not dare to oppose him.
Zahid has an uncanny ability to smell a revolt against his leadership and once he smells it out , he has no qualms in snipping it in the bud ruthlessly.
It is because of his ruthlessness, that Umno divisions and branches are too afraid to organise a large scale movement to topple Zahid.
Some people seem to think that Zahid can only be toppled through the Umno election, but this view is without insight.
We don't have to look far to see how Zahid is going to be toppled from Umno - he is likely going to be toppled the same way that Muhyiddin was effectively toppled in Bersatu .
The first thing that needs to occur for Zahid to be toppled is a large scale revolt against his leadership at the grassroot level, as how 120 Bersatu divisions signed an SD to demand that Muhyiddin steps down.
Following that, Zahid will also have to lose the support of Umno's coalition partners, as how Muhyiddin lost the support of PAS after Bersatu Aduns toppled the PAS led Perlis state government.
Following these two events, it became clear that Muhyiddin had completely lost the support of everyone in Bersatu and PN, and thus he was forced to resign as the head of PN and almost pushed out as the head of Bersatu.
Just like how Muhyiddin earned the ire of Bersatu's partner Pas, for the act of Bersatu's Aduns in Perlis in overthrowing the PAS led Perlis state government, Zahid might soon earn the ire of PH, if Umno Aduns in Negeri Sembilan persists in initiating moves that will result in the overthrow of the PH led state government.
At the same time, Zahid's attempt to stop the Negeri Sembilan Umno Aduns from overthrowing the state government, might be the last straw for the Umno division and branches nationwide - his penchant for prioritising the victory of Umno's rivals at the expense of Umno, might lead to a similar move within Umno as the one where 120 division leaders in Bersatu signed an SD to demand that Muhyiddin steps down.
Once a large-scale opposition against Zahid is organised, it will be all downhill for Zahid.
One way or another, he is going to be toppled.
TheRealNehruism (nehru.sathiamoorthy@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.