Philosophy, direction and substance Umno’s recipe to retain power — PM

MARAN: Umno has remained the country’s ruling party over the past 60 years because it has a clear political philosophy, direction and substance, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

He said the three elements underlined by French political scientists, Alexis de Tocqueville, in his book titled ‘Democracy in America’ were compulsory elements a great political party should have.

“We have come a long way and as a party which was established since 1946, we are still here. Seventy-one years old and have been the country’s ruling party for 60 years... and we are still going strong.

“We never lost control of the government. That is an unbeatable excellent record of Umno,” he said when opening Maran Umno Division Delegates’ Conference in Pekan Tajau here yesterday.

Also present were Pahang Umnodeputy chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Sharkar Shamsudin and Maran Umno chief Datuk Seri Ismail Abd Muttalib, who is also Deputy Human Resources Minister.

Najib, who is Umno president, explained that the opposition parties in the country did not have the three elements as they were still struggling to set their own ideologies, philosophies and political causes.

“There’s no way a party with three captains can be deemed as a party with clear direction. Until today, they can’t even decide who should be the next prime minister.

“And they have this idea of having interim prime minister... I seriously never heard of it. Interim prime minister for how long? A month? Six months? Several years?” he said to the cheers of the delegates.

Najib also reminded Umno members on the importance of not just being ‘Umno members’ but becoming ‘Umno people’ who would always love Umno, fight for Umno, and would never do anything detrimental to Umno, let alone to betray the party.

“Don’t be like the person who, after leading (Umno) for 22 years and having his children all rich and wealthy, decided to team up with the opposition to destroy Umno. Don’t be like that... be a member who is loyal to the party,” he said.

Najib said he was not worried to face the challenges from that ‘person’ because he believed that Malaysian voters were capable of judging for themselves his achievements after taking helm of the government, including the implementation of the East Coast Rail Line (ECRL) and the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) projects, which are the world’s most modern rail system, which also created massive job opportunities to the people in the country.

In his speech, Najib also touched on the ‘unplanned meeting’ between him and Lipis PAS Committee member Mahyudin Ghazali at the Lipis Umno Division Delegates’ conference earlier yesterday.

“I was surprised. He (Mahyudin) didn’t just come, he also wanted to pose for a picture with me and hug me. Let Mahathir (Pribumi chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad) exchange a hug with Lim Kit Siang (DAP Adviser). I do it with PAS,” he said. - Bernama