KUALA LUMPUR, May 13 — Umno will be committing suicide if it
attempts to bring down its president Datuk Seri Najib Razak or leaves
the moderate path, Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, the Umno politician seen as
among the most progressive in the party, has said.
The outspoken Umno politician said the Barisan Nasional (BN)
component party should stop complaining about the ruling coalition’s
failure to recapture a two-thirds parliamentary majority, explaining
that this scenario would not happen in a democratic country.
“If
because of this (you) want to ask the prime minister to step down, that
is a wrong KPI (key performance indicator)!” Saifuddin (picture) said, referring to Najib, who is also the prime minister and BN chairman.
“Furthermore, Umno obtained a better result than in the March 8
elections, Umno members should acknowledge, Najib’s performance was far
better than former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Badawi,” the former Umno
deputy minister was quoted as saying in an exclusive interview published
by the Sin Chew Daily today, referring to the March 8, 2008 general election.
On May 5, Najib led Umno to a win of 88 federal seats, an improvement
from the 79 seats during his predecessor Abdullah’s rule in 2008.
But BN only won a total of 133 federal seats, down from its 140-seat
win in 2008 and the 148 seats required for a two-thirds majority. The
coalition also lost the popular vote despite forming the federal
government — the first time since the 1969 elections where it had
contested as the Alliance Party.
Despite the less-than-heartening polls results for BN, Saifuddin
reminded Umno members not to forget that Najib was BN’s best product and
had aided the coalition’s victory, saying that any attempt to bring the
leader down would be suicide.
Najib was seen by observers to have driven the BN and Umno election
campaign with his personal popularity, as he remained more popular than
the parties in opinion polls.
Saifuddin also said that Umno has to continue taking the moderate
path, saying it would be suicidal for the BN lynchpin party to lean
towards the right.
“Umno’s future direction and path will be decided by the composition
of the supreme council after this year’s party elections,” the Umno
supreme council member said.
He explained that currently the Umno supreme council could be divided
into three groups, namely the “Yes, President” group, a small group of
“Malay extremists” and a even smaller group of progressives.
With the “Yes, President” group being the largest in the Umno supreme
council, Saifuddin said it was likely that the prime minister’s
policies would continue to receive great support.
Although Najib had introduced the inclusive concept of “1 Malaysia”,
right-wing elements within Umno had at times openly contradicted the
policy.
The struggle between conservative and progressive forces in Umno was
also illustrated by BN’s fielding of Perkasa vice-president Datuk
Zulkifli Noordin, while former Umno leader Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had
openly backed Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali. Both leaders from the
Malay right-wing group lost in the May 5 polls.
All eyes will now be on the Umno party elections, where the party
that won 240 out of BN’s 275 state seats will decide on whether Najib
will stay on as president, or whether 66-year-old Deputy Prime Minister
Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin will be challenging the 59-year-old for the
post.
In an interview with Sinar Harian, Saifuddin again raised
the proposal that members be accepted directly into BN instead of having
to join the coalition’s component parties.
“Now we already have ‘friends of BN’ but I think that is not enough,
they want to be BN members, they want to carry cards as BN members.
“All the arrangements have to be thought of, it means that component
parties can continue to operate as usual, no problem; I will also stay
in Umno, no thoughts of leaving, but there are some people like my
child, or other youths, they don’t want to be Umno members, they want to
be BN members.”
He explained that youths saw that most of the parties in BN were
ethnic-based parties and viewed it as a model that was suitable for the
independence era.
The younger generation now wanted a new model where they could be direct members of BN, Saifuddin said.
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