Ku Li moots fresh Umno election to replace party leadership

Umno’s entire leadership should take collective responsibility for the party’s worst electoral performance at the recent state polls, according to former Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

In an interview with The Star, the Umno veteran said he was not out to defend party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi from internal calls for his resignation.

“You cannot blame one person. I’m not defending Zahid or anybody.

“We’re just talking about winning and losing. And the leadership as a whole has to bear responsibility for this loss,” he said.

Razaleigh warned that if Umno members were not careful, it may spell the demise of the party.

“So I place the whole blame on the leadership of the party. If you want somebody to go, the entire leadership has to go, and we must overhaul the party,” he added.

To do this, Razaleigh said the way forward would be through a fresh party election, despite the leadership line-up led by Zahid and Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan only being elected five months ago.

At the time, it was agreed there would be no contest for Umno’s top two roles, allowing Zahid and Mohamad to defend their positions uncontested.

“We must have a new (party) election. That’s genuine renewal.

“Otherwise, don’t talk about it,” Razaleigh said.

However, the former eight-term MP has no names to propose to replace Zahid and called on more Umno members to raise such suggestions.

Razaleigh did identify several points for consideration though, including the person “must know what a Malay is” while also understanding the Federal Constitution.

‘Malay support for stable government’

Moving forward, Razaleigh said he believes securing Malay support remains vital for a stable government, which a reorganised Umno should take heed of.

“You can have hodgepodge votes like what PAS or Perikatan Nasional have today. But that’s not enough to marshal the country together.

“All this while, from 1955, we were ‘stable’ in the sense of inverted commas because the Malays were always there.

“Many people worry about (Prime Minister) Anwar (Ibrahim). Can Anwar marshal all these Malay voters? If the Malays are not with you, you don’t have a stable government,” he was quoted as saying.

“He can get a two-thirds majority or whatever in Parliament. But does he have a big body of Malays behind him?” Razaleigh asked, stressing that stability will come together with added support from non-Malays.

In cooperation with Pakatan Harapan and others in the federal government, BN fielded 108 candidates across six states in the recent elections, but only 19 of them won.

BN through Umno was also wiped out from Kedah and Terengganu and left with just one state assemblyperson in Kelantan.

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