UMNO veteran and political secretary to the first Penang Chief Minister, Tan Sri Yusoff Latiff is fond of reminiscing that when the late Tunku Abdul Rahman took over the UMNO leadership from Onn Jaafar in 1951, the party had no money, and Tunku sold his house in Penang to fund the running of UMNO.
Sixty-seven years later, we do not have an UMNO President who had to sell his house to fund the running of UMNO, but instead, there was the international spectacle of nearly 300 boxes of designer handbags and dozens of bags filled with cash and jewellery among the items taken away by police in raids at properties linked to the former Prime Minister’s family – which contained RM114 million in cash in 26 currencies and Birkin handbags each worth up to hundreds of thousands of dollars!
Tunku’s integrity was undoubted and never challenged. Najib is a kettle of fish who is now mentioned in the ranks of kleptocrats like Marcos of Philippines and Suharto of Indonesia.
This is not the only difference between the first-generation of UMNO leaders and the current batch of UMNO leaders.
Incumbent Umno Youth vice-chief Khairul Azwan Harun has pledged to donate 50 percent of his salary as a senator to the movement’s coffers should he be elected as Umno Youth leader.
How can Azwan help restore UMNO’s credibility and moral authority when he should have resigned as Senator, since he was appointed Senator by the UMNO/BN government which had been defeated in the historic and watershed 14th General Election on May 9, 2018?
Dewan Negara has 70 senators, of which 44 are appointed by the Yang di Pertuan Agong on the advice of the Prime Minister with 26 others elected by their respective assemblies for the post.
There are currently 31 UMNO/BN Senators, two from PAS, 11 from Pakatan along with 26 vacancies in Dewan Negara.
Will Azwan lead the 31 UMNO/BN Senators to resign from the Dewan Negara, fully accepting the verdict of the electorate in the May 9, 2018 Polling Day of the 14GE?
Today, the Gerakan Central Committee unanimously decided for Gerakan to leave Barisan Nasional. Would the Gerakan Senator resign from the Dewan Negara?
(Media Statement in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, 23rd June 2018)
#1 by good coolie on Saturday, 23 June 2018 - 9:13 pm
Gerakan has guts. Salutes to you!
#2 by gofortruth on Sunday, 24 June 2018 - 1:29 am
What a shame for UMNO to have evolved to become a den of thieves and sadly they are still on denial mode today.
#3 by pulau_sibu on Sunday, 24 June 2018 - 7:05 am
Look at some big taukeys. After they collapsed, the spoiled and incompetent second and third generations just consumed the ancestor’s wealth, and eventually they diminished from the community. It is the situation now with this party. It will not rise to power again.
#4 by pulau_sibu on Sunday, 24 June 2018 - 8:43 am
two different subjects.
1. anwar went to meet his good friend, the turkish president. this guy is now a serious liability to the free democratic world because he is doing something like najiv, becoming a dictator in turkey. why anwar went to meet him? this tarnished anwar with the image of being a free world reformasi leader.
2. BN component parties can abandon amno so easily. Look at Brexit. How tough is the negotiation for Britain to get out of EU. If the coalition really meant something, getting in and out would both be difficult. Imagine a marriage agreement. can it be as simple as BN? it seems to me such a coalition is just a nonsense.
#5 by pulau_sibu on Sunday, 24 June 2018 - 11:10 am
if i may add in another subject, that is about the power of the majority sarawakian population. when dayak/iban will become the chief minister of sarawak? with its current BN or GPS, Iban/Dayak will forever be sidelined. We should return the politics to the main race, like in the Peninsula which is to malay.
#6 by good coolie on Wednesday, 27 June 2018 - 12:17 pm
Now, Gerakan is truly independent. let them think things over and then chose to contribute to the nation in some useful way. As for the other minor parties in the Barisan, you’re no use to anyone being Pak Turuts! Boss won’t respect you; and Rakyat won’t respect you either.