Umno's top leadership, party president and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, as well as former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, are not the only ones at loggerheads.

Last night, 35 Umno Youth branch leaders from the 70 branches under the Permatang Pauh division held a press conference in Seberang Jaya to express their no confidence in division Youth chief Abu Bakar Sidekh and his deputy Farid Idris Khan.

Abu Bakar took over the post from Mohd Zaidi Said, who went on to become the Permatang Pauh division chief after the party's internal polls last year.

The 35 have signed a petition to national youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin to inform him about their loss of trust in the two leaders.

They claimed that Abu Bakar and Farid have lost their credibility when they failed to live up to the expectations of the divisional youth wing members.

Taman Hj Mohd Amin branch chief Mohamad Izwan Umar ( photo ) said Abu Bakar and Farid have failed to fulfil the promises that they have made to the wing since assuming their positions last year.

"Where are funds amounting to RM1.5 million for programmes to benefit the youths, which were supposed to be organised since they took over the leadership?" asked Mohamad Izwan.

"Until now, we do not know what has happened to the money," he added.

'Done little for youth'

Mohamad Izwan said the duo had failed to organise activities to attract the youths.

He praised the former chief Mohd Zaidi for being able to garner support of youths in Permatang Pauh during his tenure as the division's youth chief post since 2004.

"Umno is now no longer the favourite party of the youths compared to the past, when Mohd Zaidi was in charge, and youths play a very important role in the party," Mohamad Izwan said.

"Mohd Zaidi was able to spread the message of transformasi but sadly, our current leaders are not able to do it, they have continued with their unconcerned attitude towards the wing's problems," he stressed.

"If this trend continues, Umno will be in a very critical and barely surviving (nazak) mode come the 14th national polls," he lamented.

Mohamad Izwan said the concerned group felt compelled to rectify the situation by highlighting it to the press after attempts to get help from their leaders fell on deaf ears.

He added that current youth leaders were "unprofessional" and treated their problems lightly.

Suspend duo call

The group wants Khairy, who is also Youth and Sports Minister, to step in immediately to address the crisis in the youth wing in Permatang Pauh.

"We want Khairy to conduct a post-mortem on what is happening here, and to suspend the two leaders until the next internal polls," said Mohamad Izwan.

In the by-election last month, Umno's Permatang Pauh young candidate Suhaimi Sabudin lost by a 8,000 margin to the senior PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

During the campaign BN leaders, especially Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had repeatedly called for unity between the divisions and branches.

However, cooperation between the BN component parties and divisions were marred by Mahathir's incessant criticism against Najib, especially over the 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s (1MDB) financial scandal.