Umno Youth ready to contest seat
KUALA LUMPUR: Umno Youth is ready to contest the Sungai Kandis by-election, but will wait for the party leadership’s decision on whether it will do so.
Umno Youth chief Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said the wing would respect the party’s decision, whatever it may be.
“Sungai Kandis will be the test ground for Umno Youth where 85 per cent of the Youth leadership are new faces,” he said after a Youth executive council meeting.
The by-election will be held on Aug 4, with nomination day on July 21, following the death of its representative, Mat Shuhaimi Shafie.
Asyraf said Umno Youth was visiting every state to strengthen the movement at the grassroots level.
“We are visiting each state to provide information for the grassroots.
“We have gone to Melaka, Negri Sembilan and Sabah.
“After this, we will go to Selangor, Terengganu and Perak,” he said, adding that Umno Youth would use a knowledge-based and factual approach, and not the tactic used by Pakatan Harapan, which used slander to empower itself.
Asyraf hit out at the government for freezing Umno accounts, calling it ungentlemanly and hypocrite.
He said if the government wanted to portray a “New Malaysia”, it should not restrict political parties who have different ideologies.
“Under the Barisan Nasional government, which it claimed was a tyrannical government, we never blocked any political party accounts... even when Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) was suspended by the Registry of Societies, the government did not restrict or freeze PPBM’s account,” he said after the meeting at Menara Dato Onn.
Present were his deputy, Shahril Sufian Hamdan, and exco members.
However, he said, he welcomed the efforts by the government to draft a law on political financing.
“I think we have long wanted to draft the law but at the time it was opposed by the opposition party (now the government).
“For us, it should be open and transparent because in this context, it will give a clear signal to the people that we have nothing to hide.”