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)