Ku Li says Umno must give power back to members

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah wants Umno to return to democratic principles. – Picture by Choo Choy May

By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 1 — Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah today urged Umno leaders to give power back to the party’s grassroots and become more democratic.

Tengku Razaleigh believes that the leadership must not only drop the quota system but also the conditions set in nominating a candidate for the party’s top posts.

Party president Datuk Seri Najib Razak had proposed scrapping the nomination quotas and opening the vote to branch delegates at this year’s assembly in March when he took over from former president Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The quota system was put in place to ensure there would be no popular challenge to the party leadership when Umno was reconstituted in 1988 after it was declared illegal.

“They are told they are prepared to drop the quota system but they are putting a lot of conditions so it is back to square one meaning that the leadership is not serious. “Meaning the leadership is not having much faith in the grassroots leaders so they must go back to the grassroots and give back power to them.

“If you are good, they will elect them. You don’t have to pamper them,” he told reporters after attending the launching of Selangor’s Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah’s book, Malay Peninsula: Old Photographs of Malaya and Singapore by Kleingrothe, in Concorde hotel.

Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah and Raja Muda Perak Raja Nazrin looking at some pictures from the Malay Peninsula book that were display. – Picture by Choo Choy May

The Malaysian Insider had reported this morning that Umno’s political bureau has agreed to drop a contentious party election rule on eligibility for top posts when delegates vote on Oct 13 to abolish nomination quotas.

The rule that allows only members of the powerful Umno supreme council who have served for at least three terms to contest top posts has drawn the ire of a majority of the party’s 191 divisions.

Commenting further on reforms in Umno, the former finance minister said he was also worried that the public had lost trust in the party after Tan Sri Isa Samad was selected as Barisan Nasional’s (BN) candidate for the Bagan Pinang by-election.

“I think people are very concerned about the moral values of leaders today and you cannot dismiss this view point. I think it is best that the leadership really takes this to heart and not do things against the wishes of the people.

“We may win a battle but we might not win the war because I think the long term interests of the country is more important than anything else,” he said.

He added that Umno must democratise itself and gain back the trust of Malaysians because the public had sent a very strong signal in the previous general election.

“You must democratise yourself, you must give power back to the grassroots to elect leaders so that proper people are put up with the aspirations of the people on the ground.

“You can see recently at the annual meetings at the cawangan-cawangan in the run up the general assembly of the party this year, some cawangan did not even have the quorum so that shows that is no more interest among Umno members.”