04-01-2021, 10:18 AM
PETALING JAYA: Umno may be seeing history repeating itself 34 years after Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah led a faction out of the party following his fallout with party president Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
In 1987, Malaysia was experiencing an economic recession that saw unemployment hit 7.5%. Today, the country is again struggling with a shrinking economy and high unemployment amid a health crisis, and it looks like Umno is back to square one, with an all-time high in internal backstabbing.
Soon after Perikatan Nasional took over Putrajaya with the help of Barisan Nasional in February 2020, some Umno leaders began to complain that the PPBM-led coalition was sidelining their party in the running of the country.
This caused a crack in Umno. Several MPs with government positions continued to back Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, but others snubbed the premier, whose party is made up largely of Umno defectors.
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