Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's strategies to work on the weaknesses faced by the Malays received the thumbs-up from his colleagues in the Barisan Nasional as well as within Umno.

MCA president Ong Ka Ting said Malays should place knowledge and competitiveness as priorities when facing challenges, adding that these two components were important to rectify weaknesses.

The prime minister's assertion on this issue is "timely" and the importance of knowledge and competitiveness should be inculcated not only among the Malays but by all races as well, the housing and local government minister told reporters after Abdullah delivered his policy speech at the 56th Umno general assembly in Kuala Lumpur today.

Gerakan president Dr Lim Keng Yaik supported Abdullah's strategies for the Malays to compete in the business world, saying that the government should widen its scope when helping bumiputras to succeed as entrepreneurs.

"I'm sure the government will identify the right people to participate in business. Rather than making the already successful more richer, it is better to build a bigger middle-class business community," he said.

Lim, who is energy, water and communications minister, added that the focus should be on small and medium industries and the service industry in order to boost economic growth.

Vow on corruption

On the Umno president's resolve to battle political corruption in the party, Umno stalwart and Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said the delegates were aware of Abdullah's seriousness in trying to clean up the party.

"If you want to lead a clean government, the party must also be clean," he pointed out.

Vowing to cleanse the party of political corruption, the Umno president invited every party member to join him in the crusade so that the party would remain respected and enjoyed the people's support.

He admitted that fighting political corruption was a heavy task but said he would not give up or be disappointed and would always seek strength from God to curb corruption.

"It's a heavy task like scaling a steep mountain. (Nevertheless), I will not be disappointed. I will not give up. As long as I'm alive, I will continue to seek strength and guidance from the Almighty to stamp out corruption," he said to the thunderous applause of the 2,533 delegates.

Most foreign delegates

Earlier Umno secretary-general Radzi Sheikh Ahmad welcomed the presence of 93 delegates from abroad representing 28 political parties from 26 countries.

"This represents the biggest number of foreign delegates in the history of the general assembly," he said.

Among the foreign political parties which had sent representatives to the assembly were the Party of Democratic Action (Bosnia Herzegovina), Cambodian People's Party (Cambodia), Communist Party of China (China), Cuba Communist Party (Cuba), Egyptian Communist Party (Egypt), Indian National Congress (India) and Partai Demokrat (Indonesia).

Radzi also welcomed the presence of 50 representatives from 53 Umno clubs overseas including from the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Australia, Egypt and the United States.

Yesterday, the Umno Wanita, Youth and Puteri wings held their annual assemblies .