BY: SRIDEVI SURYA

There are growing calls within the ranks of UMNO that its president, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, be held responsible and accountable for the party’s disastrous showing in the recent state elections and are calling on him to quit.

For some time now the daggers have been drawn to oust Zahid who is also the deputy prime minister but now the calls have become vociferous and they feel that he has become a greater liability to the party.

UMNO sources stated that Zahid’s image has been tarnished by a number of corruption and abuse of power allegations and they suspect that the voters in the six states felt that there was a grain of truth in these accusations.

Informed sources in UMNO say that Zahid is deemed to be suspect. UMNO insiders feel that voters felt that there was no smoke without fire and lambasted the party president for wanting to cling on to power.

But what party members fear most is that he is guilty of dragging the party down and only wants the position of party president and deputy prime minister to save himself from being handed a guilty verdict.

Others say while these are all conjecture and inconclusive speculation, they nevertheless feel that he needs to be replaced with a more suitable candidate and there are already a number of hopefuls lining up to take his place.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE

** The views expressed on this opinion is of the writer and not the publisher