YOU SHOULD HAVE SPOKEN TO ME EARLIER, NAJIB TELLS KHAIRY
I welcome comments done privately, says ex-PM
DATUK Seri Najib Razak said Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and other Barisan Nasional leaders should have spoken up if they had an issue with his leadership of BN as well as the government.
Najib said he believed he had always practised an “open style”, with people being allowed to voice their comments.
“As far as I’m concerned, I’ve always practised an open-style leadership. People were free to voice their comments, even differences of opinion.
“I’m open about it, except that I want it to be done in private because we should not attack each other as members of the government,” he was quoted as saying in an exclusive interview with the Malay Mail yesterday.
This marked his first interview since BN’s defeat to Pakatan Harapan in the 14th General Election (GE14).
He said members were given the freedom to convey their dissatisfaction, but it should be done using “proper channels”.
“Khairy is free to come and see me and say, ‘Look, sir. I think you are not on the right track, or there is a problem’,” he said.
“He didn’t do that.”
Najib said he never forced his ideals on others and emphasised only the need to toe the party line to maintain discipline.
“If you attack the leadership openly, that is against party discipline.
“But if you come and say, ‘Sir, I disagree with you. I think you should do it this way.’ That is not against party discipline.”
He was believed to be referring to his former deputy, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, and ex-Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, who are now Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia president and Parti Warisan Sabah chief, respectively.
In reference to Khairy, he said, “He should realise that I am not going to dictate to anyone with differences of opinion.
“I only want party discipline. Those who were disciplined by the party, it was because they broke it,” he said.
Khairy, in an interview with Channel NewsAsia after GE14, had described BN as “delusional” “drunk on our own Kool-Aid and we got carried away”.
He was quoted as saying that following Muhyiddin and Shafie’s sacking, no one wanted to acknowledge that the party had a problem.
He admitted that it was a mistake on their part and that his failure to speak up would be one of the biggest regrets of his life.