UMNO AGM | Umno deserters are political "prostitutes" who are in the political arena to seek personal gain, said the party's Puteri chief Zahida Zarik Khan.

Zahida said the party's experience in dealing with its defeat in the 14th general election has allowed it to differentiate between members who are "true warriors", as compared to "fake warriors" (pejuang jadian).

"True warriors are those who stay, whatever the situation. Fake warriors are those who only appear when (the party)'s condition is comfortable and victorious, but flee when it is down and defeated," Zahida addressed the crowd during the Puteri meeting at this year’s Umno general assembly.  

Zahida said that the party is witnessing the presence of "political miners" (pelombong politik) who are active in politics only when there are political gains to be obtained.

"At this time, we can see that there are those who obtained positions from Umno, who sold their positions to the enemies. Sorry to say, they are no more than a political prostitute without dignity," she said.

After the 14th general election and the election of Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as Umno president, the party was rocked by a string of defections, whittling down its number of MPs to 49.

Umno's relevance

Zahida told the crowd that, because of Umno, Islam and the Malays were respected and they were not vagabonds in their homeland as happened to other people such as the Native Americans in the United States, or South African natives.

"This is because Umno has been defending what should be our rights and, at the same time, protecting the rights of others."

Zahida said Umno is relevant because there's no guarantee that other parties will continue to sustain what the party has built for the Malays and Islam.

"Can we rely on DAP to strengthen the positions of Islam and the Malays? Of course not, because that is not in the party's agenda.

“We cannot rely on PKR because it's not a Malay party. It's a multi-racial party and is not able to make Islam and Malays their focus," she said.

Zahida added that the "flower-logo" party (referring to Bersatu) is a tiny party which depends on other parties to stay in power.

"Their lives depends on certain individuals and, more importantly, on DAP who is their big brother in the coalition," she said.

Also present during the assembly were Umno vice-president Mohamed Khaled Nordin and Umno supreme council members Bung Mokhtar Radin, Lokman Noor Adam, and Azalina Othman Said who is the former chief of Umno Puteri.

The 2018 Umno general assembly kicked off with the annual general meetings of the Umno wings namely Wanita, Youth and Puteri today, followed by the party's conference tomorrow.