YOURSAY | 'Umno has to accept responsibility if it wants to regain the confidence of the rakyat.'

'Umno's standing unaffected by Najib-linked RM1.1b haul'

Fairnsquare: While their party president allegedly stole the rakyat's money, only former Umno members including then deputy Muhyiddin Yassin and Sabah leader Shafie Afdal gained the respect of the people by taking positive action after the scandal was exposed.

Meanwhile, the rest of Umno became party to the alleged crime by standing by their president. Now party president hopeful Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah says: “I don’t think it affects our standing as a party, if this (referring to the allegations against Najib) is true." 

Umno has to accept responsibility and accountability and repent if it wants to regain the confidence of the rakyat as a sound opposition. If this is not understood and accepted, Umno can never rise again.

As for the BN component parties, the same applies.

David Dass: Do you honestly believe that? What did the party do when it became evident to the whole world that something very wrong had taken place?

Internally the coalition in power - of which Umno was the dominant member - did all it could to disguise, camouflage, deny and obstruct any kind of investigation.

When billions of dollars of our money was being squandered by one Jho Low, all departments of government including the Attorney-General's Chambers and the police, and of course 1MDB, said that it was not our money.

1MDB claimed it had lost nothing. The superyacht Equanimity was not ours. Foreign governments like the US and Switzerland were astonished that we did not want the return of our confiscated money. They knew it was ours. We denied it was ours.

And Ku Li, you say the party's standing is unaffected?

Salam: Of course, Umno is tainted. The loot was hauled from the premises of the former Umno president, who still claims to this date that more than RM100 million in cash is either Umno funds or "election funds", and who has described details of Umno's "money management culture", which sounds more like a criminal gang rather than a registered society.

This is the long historical downward slide of what used to be a grassroots party, the bulk of whom were ordinary schoolteachers and simple workers, into a party of power, money and greed, and eventually consumed by the disease of corruption.

They are so thoroughly infected that they can't differentiate between right and wrong anymore. It's obvious that the party needs to be rebuilt from the ground up, by new leaders unconnected to the previous government or to Umno's sordid past. But who is left?

Anonymous 2436471476414726: Razaleigh, who are you kidding? Of course, it has everything to do with Umno.

He was your president, some of you even claimed he was god-sent. Surely, some of you knew what Najib Razak was up to, but none would squeal. In fact, some defended him stoutly.

Given such culture in Umno, Najib was happily amassing his personal wealth by allegedly robbing the nation's coffer like nobody's business. Bet you he is not the only Umno leader who made a fortune out of his position in the party or government.

So Ku Li, we don't buy your story that the seizure of Najib's loot has nothing to do with Umno. As they say, when a fish rots, it rots from the head. The head is surely rotten in this case, so is the whole body.

Simple Malaysian: Indeed, many of the current Umno leaders not only stood by Najib but also swore to his innocence when the news of the scandal broke out.

Ku Li, notwithstanding your comments that Umno should apologise for its past mistakes, these Umno leaders are expected to be retained after the coming party elections and they are still linked in some way to the alleged "crime" by Najib.

To say Umno's standing is unaffected is an understatement, if I may say so.

Anonymous_1371475682: Are you kidding me, Ku Li? You and your party supported 'Bonnie and Clyde'.

Most likely, there are more cronies in your party than we can ever imagine (maybe you are just blind). Corruption has seeped down to the core, from the top leaders to the bottom. And some Umno leaders still have no shame and came out to claim the seized money belongs to Umno.

I see you as one double-headed snake that follows where the wind blows. You have never been constructive in criticising wrongdoing when you were required to.

No one can change overnight, and definitely not anyone of you in your party. Go retire.

Please Trust Me: Ku Li, you are 81 years old and you have forgotten the Umno declaration on May 24, just over a month ago, that the money seized belongs to Umno and had asked for it to be returned to Umno.

A smart leader would admit the wrongdoings and will convince the people about his future plans. Do you think Dr Mahathir Mohamad would have been accepted as the new PM if he didn't admit his past mistakes?

Humans are very forgiving in nature, and we only want to move on. We trust people are allowed to make mistakes if they are prepared to correct them.

The people that you want to serve want to see how you deal with your party's mistakes and how you answer to them. Don't forget that you need their support, and your sincerity will be felt and seen by all.

You are adopting the culture of Umno - denying, blaming, rationalising are all your defence mechanisms to protect the ugly side of you. Don't treat people as naïve. Instead, work together with them and understand their needs. Forget about personal greed.

Anonymous 2478181499087834: Ku Li, this is the same old tired song you all have been singing since the 50s. Like the three monkeys - hear nothing, see nothing, say nothing. But now you have the mother of all monkeys - deny, ignore, cover up.

Don't you realise this stance is what brought Umno and Najib down? The whole world is shell-shocked with all the looted treasures paraded publicly by our very own police. Yet you are all claiming to want to reform and transform your Umno, and you want to be the party president.

Former Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin said the same thing. Acting president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Najib's noisy kompang, is maintaining his elegant silence. So what has changed? Why are you all still standing for president?

Oh, I remember why: you said Umno has immense valuable assets all over the country. I would suggest Umno members elect the other two unknowns as president and deputy president. There may be some hope then.

Anonymous#007: Ku Li, like other Umno members, are trying very hard to distance themselves and Umno from Najib, kleptocracy and corruption they had encouraged and supported - directly or indirectly - in the last 60 years.

They are using the social media to rebrand themselves - the train of statements in the last few weeks reeks of the help of expensive image professionals. But, the rakyat will forever link Umno to Najib and his gang in the alleged thieving of hundreds of billions from the poor rakyat.

Given the mountain of credible evidence of grand corruption involving Umno members, there should be a detailed probe on Umno assets as well.

Finally, let us not forget Umno is essentially an illegal entity if the rule of law were applied judiciously and professionally.

Falcon: Denial of reality and politically delusional statements seem to be the twin pillars of Umno, and nothing seems to have changed for the better.

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