Self discipline at all levels of Umno must be improved if the party wants to continue leading the nation, said party supreme council member and former youth head Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

In an interview with malaysiakini yesterday, Ahmad Zahid stressed that these and not changes in the party constitution and rules, can eventually put a stop to the various problems, including money politics, besieging the party.

"Even the party's newly formed disciplinary committee is unnecessary as there are already changes made to the party constitution to fight these menaces," he said, adding that a special annual general meeting was called last year to tackle these problems.

According to Ahmad Zahid, discipline is not derived from strict regulations based on the constitution or meeting regulations but must come from within.

"If the members decide that they can be ruled by money politics then whatever rulings or restrictions introduced will not work," he said.

Warlord syndrome

The former Bank Simpanan Nasional chairman claimed that Umno's waning influence was due to certain leaders who are afraid of competition in the party's leadership.

"These leaders become worried when others want to contribute to the party. These newcomers are more often than not better qualified than the old guards."

To protect their positions, these old guards tend to behave like "warlords" without having any interest in rejuvenating the party, lamented the member of parliament for Bagan Datoh.

Ahmad Zahid said that it was this scenario that drove many young aspiring leaders away from Umno.

"These young leaders began looking for alternative ways to share their ideas and inevitably they are driven towards the opposition, especially PAS."

However, Ahmad Zahid said that Umno was in the process of overcoming this problem and Puteri Umno is an example.

Puteri Umno was set up as a channel to encourage young women professionals into the party.

The downfall

In September 1998, Ahmad Zahid was removed as the Umno Youth leader after he had raised issues of corruption and nepotism at the party's general assembly that year.

He was later arrested under the Internal Security Act for nine days over his vocal opposition concerning the sacking of former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim.

In 1999, Ahmad Zahid sought forgiveness from Prime Minister and Umno president Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and admitted that he was instructed by Anwar to raise the nepotism and cronyism issues during the party meet.

He also revealed that Anwar had given him business opportunities, including ownership of shares in listed companies.

The comeback

He made a surprising come back to party politics when he was elected to sit in the powerful supreme council last year, winning with the third highest number of votes.

"I did not have any advantage over the other contenders. I just had the sympathy of my friends. The members also had time to digest my exile from the party since 1998," he said.

Ahmad Zahid said that he was removed from his party post due to the misconception that he was critical of the leadership.

"Actually I did not oppose the leadership of Mahathir. I was merely giving a reminder for the good of the party. But this resulted in me being sidelined."

He also said that as the Youth leader of the party, he had introduced the concept of Putera Umno to attract more members into the party.

"But you must ask the present chief (Hishammuddin Hussein) as to what had happened to that innovative idea," he said.