The Malaysian Insight

UMNO has to be dominant again in the next general election because its rivals are vindictive, party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said.

He took aim at Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH) during his policy speech at the 2021 Umno general assembly in Kuala Lumpur today.

He said despite receiving Barisan Nasional’s (BN) support, the PN government had systematically denied giving key positions to Umno MPs.

“Only weak leaders would deny more capable people from helping to rebuild the country.

“A weak leader chooses weak followers,” said Zahid, who is the Bagan Datuk MP.

In his policy speech that ran for more than an hour, Zahid also attacked PH, calling the coalition vindictive because it had “persecuted” Umno’s leaders such as himself, former president Najib Razak, secretary-general Ahmad Maslan and treasurer Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, by charging them with corruption.

“As such, we must be dominant again in GE15 because our rivals are vindictive.”

Zahid spoke to a packed hall filled with delegates, 22 ambassadors and leaders from BN component parties MCA, MIC and PBRS. The hall was full unlike the general assembly in 2018 when BN had lost federal power for the first time in history in general elections that year.

Zahid attacked Bersatu and PH but did not hit out at PAS, which is also in PN.

He said Bersatu and PH lacked integrity. 

“Our rivals say they have integrity but they too bought our lawmakers to join their parties. In the Malacca elections, PH even accepted a frog as its candidate,” said Zahid. 

“PN or Bersatu on the other hand has tried to whitewash the party hopping by calling them principled frogs. What is that?

“This is why Umno has signed agreements with all the candidates in Malacca and Johor whereby anybody who hops after winning has to pay a high compensation,” he said, referring to the two recent state elections.

Such agreements with all election candidates will be the norm for BN in future elections.

“We won in Malacca and Johor based on the BN brand and not the strength of the individuals. There is no one bigger than the party.”

The Umno annual general assembly, which started yesterday, will continue until this tomorrow with a total of 5,571 delegates from 191 divisions participating. – March 18, 2022.