UMNO, Malaysia’s once-mighty political titan, is a rotting husk, its veins clogged with the greed of its old guard and the reckless bluster of its new blood.
For decades, the United Malays National Organisation ruled with an iron grip, fueled by a financial empire built on state plunder and corporate cronyism. Now, it’s a dying beast, and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim—has his boot on its throat.
This isn’t just dismantling; it’s annihilation
Anwar is dismantling Umno brick by brick, choking its cash, crushing its legacy, and supressing its loudmouth young guns.
The goal? Ensure no flicker of resurgence survives—not from the Mahathir-Daim crypt, not from Najib’s jail cell, and certainly not from Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh’s hardline circus or Khairy Jamaluddin’s radio and podcast show.
The financial rot: starving the beast
UMNO’s lifeblood was always money—billions churned through a patronage mill that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Daim Zainuddin perfected in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Privatization wasn’t progress; it was a heist.
Companies like UEM and Renong, tethered to Daim’s genius, raked in infrastructure deals—highways, towers, power plants—while siphoning profits back to Umno’s war chest. Dr Mahathir handed the party RM1.2 billion in 2003, a parting bribe from his era’s loot.
Najib Razak took it global with 1MDB, a US$4.5 billion scandal that bought yachts and funded UMNO’s 2013 squeaker of a win—until it didn’t.
Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, now Umno’s president and Anwar’s deputy PM, allegedly dipped into RM31 million from Yayasan Akalbudi, a charity turned personal ATM. The base got rice sacks; the elite got Rolexes.
Anwar’s weapon is simple: cut the cash.
Zahid, tethered to Anwar’s unity government, is a hollowed-out comptroller—party funds vanish under his watch, branches wither, and loyalists starve.
PKR swoops into the vacuum, poaching UMNO’s Malay base with promises and payouts.
The MACC, Malaysia’s anti-corruption agency, circles Daim’s empire—Ilham Tower seized, his family probed—while Mahathir’s sons dodge the same net. Umno’s financial spine is snapping, and Anwar’s making sure no tycoon or trustee can stitch it back together.
The old guard: ghosts of greed
The architects of Umno’s wealth are its Achilles’ heel. Daim’s estate still faces charges for hiding assets—decades of deals unmasked.
Mahathir, 99 going on 100 and defiant, cries “witch hunt” as his son Mirzan squirms under scrutiny. These aren’t just probes; they’re public executions of a legacy that propped UMNO up.
Najib, jailed but scheming, saw his sentence halved in 2024—Anwar’s concession to placate UMNO’s remnants—but it’s not enough.
Zahid, dodging 47 graft charges in 2023, clings to power, a puppet who’s forgotten the strings. These men didn’t just fund Umno; they were Umno—its soul, its wallet, its rot.
Anwar’s tearing them down, brick by gilded brick, ensuring their cronies—Ananda Krishnan, Vincent Tan—can’t bankroll a revival.
The New Blood: Akmal and the hardline lunatics
Enter the younger Umno, louder and dumber. Dr. Muhamad Akmal Saleh, UMNO Youth chief since 2023, is the poster boy—a hardliner barking racial rhetoric and Malay supremacy. His Facebook rant after Najib’s sentence cut—“We were played. The time has come”—was a tantrum, not a strategy.
Posts on X paint him as a right-wing loose cannon, clashing with academics like Prof. Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi, who’s pushing to neuter his influence. Akmal’s not alone—figures like Shahril Hamdan and Nurul Aman Mohd Fauzi echo his noise, banking on divisive stunts to rally a shrinking base.
They’re not leaders; they’re loonies, thriving on chaos where Umno’s old money once ruled.
Anwar’s not flinching. These brats threaten his Reformasi vision—pluralism over tribalism, governance over gimmicks.
He’s got the tools: freeze their funds, sideline their platforms, and let PKR’s grassroots outmuscle them.
Akmal’s career needs to end—publicly, painfully. A by-election loss here, a party purge there, and they’re footnotes. Anwar’s already got Zahid corralling the youth wing’s cash flow—starve the beast, and the pups go quiet.
The Endgame: no room for Umno’s ghost
This isn’t dismantlement with a scalpel; it’s a sledgehammer. Anwar’s playbook is ruthless: bankrupt UMNO’s finances, disgrace its old guard, and bury its young turks.
The MACC’s raids, PKR’s poaching, and Zahid’s leash ensure the party’s base fractures—some defect, others fade.
Deregister UMNO by 2026—call it broke, call it corrupt, call it history.
Dr Mahathir’s legacy, Daim’s shadow, Najib’s loot, Akmal’s rants—all ash. Anwar’s not just pulling the plug; he’s salting the earth.
The narrative’s clear: Umno’s a corpse, and Anwar’s the undertaker.
Reformasi demanded a reckoning—this is it. By 2027’s election, UMNO’s logo won’t haunt a ballot. Anwar’s legacy? The man who killed the kingmaker and built a new Malaysia on its grave. – February 23, 2025
Mudasir Khan or Tuan Muda as he is better known, is a US-based entrepreneur. This is the personal opinion of the writer.