Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar has urged party members to defend the party’s leaders, which he said is a part of defending Malaysia’s independence.

He stressed that Malaysia’s independence is an inalienable part of Umno’s legacy, and today’s party members must strive to defend the fruits of their forefathers struggle for independence.

“Independence is something that we must continue to defend. Don’t think that since we have become independent 59 years ago, we no longer need to talk about independence.

“Today ladies and gentleman - what the division leader (Rizalman Mokhtar) said just now about defending our leaders - is also a part of defending our independence today,” he told delegates at the opening of the Bandar Tun Razak Umno delegates’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur today.

“As I have mentioned before, we have to uphold the supremacy of the constitution and the Rukunegara. What does that mean? It means we have to respect the democracy that we have today,” he said.

The event coincided with the 59th National Day celebrations, which commemorates the moment when Malaya became independent of the British Empire on Aug 31, 1957.

Khairy explained that democracy and the rule of law must be upheld, but there had been efforts to topple the government of the day through undemocratic means.

These include the Citizens’ Declaration initiated by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and through street protests, he said.

Khairy said the government of the day is legitimate and elected by the people in accordance with the Federal Constitution, and hence must be respected until the next election comes around.

“It is then (during the election) when we go back to the people. It is there when we give power to the people to determine who would be the government for the next five years.

“But as long as there is no election, do not disturb and do not interrupt the government and the prime minister that are already in place,” he said.

Speaking on elections, Khairy said there had been some urgings for snap elections to be held now, since the opposition parties are in disarray.

He said he disagrees with this view, and argued that Umno should rely on its strengths instead of its opponent’s weaknesses to win elections.

Otherwise, he said, Umno would be in trouble if a snap election is called and the opposition parties suddenly rally together.

Several strategies to ensure victory

In order to help ensure victory, Khairy laid out several strategies.

Among others, he said winnable candidates should be fielded to maximise BN’s chances of victory, regardless of which BN component party the candidate is from, or the candidate’s stature within the party.

“We need a new deal. If the old deal is that priority is given to local warlords in the constituency, and even then the constituency is given to certain parties based on (who fielded) the previous candidates, we need to review it.

“We are in a different situation now, and I’m confident that we can find seats for our partners so that friendship can be maintained within BN,” he said.

Khairy also voiced support for a motion from Bandar Tun Razak Umno for the division to contest in the seat instead of MCA.

During the 13th general election, the seat saw a four-corner fight between Abdul Khalid Ibrahim who was then with PKR but has since turned Independent, MCA’s Tan Kok Eng, and two Independent candidates.

Abdul Khalid managed to garner 56.4 percent of the votes, beating Tan by an 11,832-vote majority.