This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on May 15, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Umno has given its acting president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi the green light to negotiate with other political parties on forming the government or opposition blocs.

Ahmad Zahid said the Umno supreme council, which decided this at a meeting yesterday, imposed the condition that the negotiations must be carried out “en bloc”.

“We see that [Pakatan Harapan] is facing some problems [in forming the government ... we will muster all our strength during negotiations with everyone, government or opposition.

“The interests of Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) will be prioritised. We must make sure we can rise again with other component parties of BN,” Ahmad Zahid told a press conference at the Umno headquarters.

He said this in light of reports of Umno and other BN component party members affiliating with Pakatan at both the state and federal levels after BN’s surprise loss in the general election last Wednesday.

“I know there are people who say they are still Umno members but are aligning themselves [with Pakatan] to help form the state government in their states.

“They are automatically removed as Umno members for supporting a government which is not Barisan Nasional,” said Ahmad Zahid.

Out of BN’s 79 parliamentarians now, 54 are from Umno, making it the single biggest political party in the coalition.

Ahmad Zahid denied meeting PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim on Sunday as speculated on social media.

He said a task force has been formed to revive Umno as a political force, to restructure the organisation and to formulate the steps forward.

“We hope Umno divisions can conduct meetings during Ramadan. Accept that we are the opposition. Help yourselves by strengthening the soul of our party’s struggle,” he added.

Najib stepped down as Umno president and BN chairman on Saturday due to mounting pressure from the Malay party’s grass-roots following the election failure.