‘WHERE WE WENT WRONG?’
Candidates reflect on why party lost in 14th General Election
THE three Umno presidential candidates have different takes on why the party lost heavily in the 14th General Election. Gua Musang member of parliament Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah believed arrogance among Umno leaders was the main reason Malaysians voted the party out on May 9.
“Not all, but many leaders were arrogant, extreme and some acted like elitists and refused to engage with the people.
“I don’t understand this attitude. This is why the people got angry. These leaders are willing to meet people during campaigns, and then disappear.
“What is this? Because of this anger, because some of us separated ourselves from the people, they have rejected us. It is as simple as that,” he said during the Debat Awani programme, which was aired last night.
Others in the debate were former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and outgoing Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who spoke via live telecast from his constituency in Bagan Datuk, Perak.
Khairy, on the other hand, believed that Umno as a party was not at fault for the embarrassing loss, but it was due to a huge scandal that tainted the party’s image.
He reiterated his regret for not voicing out to the previous government and former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak on the grievances of the people over the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.
“I apologise to all Malaysians because, maybe as a leader, I have failed. Umno is not at fault but it is the leaders who are wrong because we hid the truth, and did not relay the complaints of the people.
“If I am chosen as the new Umno president, I want all party members to voice out and criticise. I want to be criticised.
“We must also ensure that the president will no longer enjoy immunity, and he must listen to the people’s voice.”
However, Zahid believed that Umno’s failure to retain the Federal Government was caused by the Barisan Nasional component parties’ failure to secure enough seats for the coalition.
He said this was because Umno itself had managed to get many seats and about 45 per cent of the popular vote.
The loss, Zahid said, was due to BN component parties in the peninsula only managing to get three parliamentary seats.
“We have to look at reality, and the popular vote showed we have 45 per cent, and we see this failure happening because our component parties only won three seats.
“We have to practise collective responsibility and we have to make changes together instead of pointing fingers.
“We also have to work on the problems of sabotage because I understand that some leaders at the grassroots level were disappointed when they were not chosen as candidates for the election. This is something we have to take into account,” he said.
Today, some 150,000 Umno delegates would be voting across 191 divisions to choose its new president, deputy president, three vice-presidents, supreme council members as well as its new permanent chairman and his deputy.
Others vying for the party presidency are Bandar Tun Razak committee member Mohamed Iqbal Maricair and Iskandar Puteri member Mohd Yusof Musa @ Jamaluddin.
Last week, the party chose its new wing leaders. It saw Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki voted in as the new Umno Youth chief, Datuk Dr Noraini Ahmad as the new Wanita chief, and Datuk Zahida Zarik Khan as the new Puteri chief.