Ahmad Atory Hussain told FMT that Umno was plagued with too many issues including the 1MDB and Felda land scandals and problems linked to Lembaga Tabung Haji and Mara.
As long as Umno was still tied to these, he said, the people would opt to support PH.
“Umno will only be able to regain the people’s confidence once these issues are resolved.
“The people are willing to wait for PH to find a solution to these issues, be it 100 days, a year or even five years.”
He predicted that this would be the case even if PH did not fulfil its manifesto, as long as Umno did not change and retained leaders like former Sabah chief minister Musa Aman and party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
However, he said a return to Barisan Nasional (BN) was possible if the coalition was able to put forth good leaders to challenge those in PH.
“The people will be able to judge for themselves, and it will not be surprising if the very same voters who voted for PH vote for BN instead.”
If BN and PAS wanted to regain the people’s confidence, he said, drastic party reform would be needed.
“By that, I mean 80% of the leaders must go. Enough of warlord practices within Umno. It’s time to let the younger ones lead.”
Giving the example of Khairy Jamaluddin, Atory acknowledged the criticism by those who said the former Umno Youth chief had no experience.
“But he has been around since former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi – that’s a good 14 years.
“If you keep pushing the younger ones away, saying they have no experience and are unable to lead the party, when will they ever learn how to lead?”
Atory also viewed Najib Razak as a liability, saying many had rejected BN because of the former prime minister.
“If he had stepped down earlier, Umno would not be in the state it’s in today,” he said.
Regarding Umno’s cooperation with PAS, Atory said the parties always had a political understanding, even before former Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin left the party in 2016.
“Before he left Umno, I met with him several times. He told me he was one of those who had always agreed with the cooperation with PAS.
“Back then, Muhyiddin and several others wanted to cooperate with PAS to take on PKR’s Anwar Ibrahim. But he said Najib did not understand what the cooperation would mean.”
Atory also believed that Muhyiddin’s party, PPBM, was still safe for the time being.
Muhyiddin himself had said that even working together, Umno and PAS would not be strong enough to take on PH.
Atory said Muhyiddin was able to make such statements about Umno as PPBM had won 12 seats in the May 9 polls despite being a relatively new party.
“PPBM is new. Critics should not expect the party to perform as well as PKR or DAP.
“When we talk about the Malay heartland, Umno held these areas for more than 60 years. Do you think it’s easy for PPBM to penetrate these areas, especially the Felda settlements?”
Noting that even DAP, one of the biggest parties in the coalition, had taken 30 years to take over traditional MCA strongholds, Atory said the people should give PPBM more time.
He also raised the possibility that not all Umno and PAS members agreed on the cooperation between the two parties.
“This was reflected when they did not come out to vote during the recent Sungai Kandis and Seri Setia by-elections.
“Blind loyalty does not exist anymore, especially with the presence of social media.”