Najib Reminds Umno Members To Avoid Cliques, Conspiracies

PEKAN, May 7 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun on Friday reminded Umno members not to get involved in cliques or conspiracies as these two elements could lead to the party's disintegration.

The Prime Minister said they should instead work together as a team and do things that were beneficial to the party and country.

"Our formula is to work as a single team and not get involved in cliques or conspiracies. We should be working to defeat the opposition and not do things which are detrimental to ourselves," he said when simultaneously opening the meetings of several Pekan Umno branches, here Friday.

Citing the example of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Japan, Najib, who is also Umno president, said the downfall of the LDP, which is about the same age of Umno, was because of the two elements he mentioned.

"Recently, we heard a first hand account from LDP leaders as to why the party crumbled in the last general election in Japan. One of the factors was that there were too many cliques in it and all kinds of conspiracies which ultimately led to its own downfall because they were spending more energy trying to outdo each other than looking after the interests of the people," he said.

Najib said should one day Umno collapse, it would not be caused by others but because of infighting among Umno members.

He said continuous success required concerted ongoing effort and would not "fall on the lap".

According to Najib, efforts must be taken to move further forward immediately after a general election and not wait to act just before an election comes.

"We have to plan systematically and execute our plans accordingly," he said adding that the results of the 2008 general election where the Barisan Nasional (BN) lost five states and its two thirds majority in Parliament was a good lesson that things could not be taken for granted.

He said Umno members needed to change with the times and realise that what was of uppermost importance was the party and country and not factions that were only out to serve their own vested interests.

He added that Umno members could take comfort that Malays who deserted the party in the 2008 election had returned to the fold as evidenced in the just- concluded Hulu Selangor parliamentary by-election in Opposition-held Selangor where the BN won.