SHAH ALAM, 5th DEC: The UMNO Annual General Meeting 2012 swayed off course its original aim to protect and act as advocate for the Malays when it turned into an party to “bodek” or flatter its primary leaders.
It is obvious that UMNO has no direction and is in shambles from constantly picking on the opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat (PR), and has forgotten to discuss the real issues facing the country’s people, especially the Malays.
Social activist, Haris Ibrahim says that the representation and leadership of UMNO is only in assembling to offer praises to the highest leadership of UMNO, led by Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak and UMNO’s former President, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
“The assembly this time seemed without direction when we should be seeing commitment from every point of leadership in UMNO to defend the fate of people, but here it is the opposite,” he mentioned in an interview.
According to him, on the whole, the representatives and leaders including Pemuda and Wanita UMNO gave speeches that were unclear and did not propose ideas to improve welfare conditions but rather to cause disharmony amongst the people of the country.
“Khairy Jamaluddin and Rezal Naina Merican gave speeches that fell far from the point such as the ‘Churchill’ theory and another speech by the President (Najib)… Some swayed too much to the left and others veered too much to the right in a seemingly chaotic manner,” he added. Haris Ibrahim is also the Chairman of the As Long As It Isn’t Umno (ABU) movement.
Also, Wanita UMNO Chief, Datuk Seri Sharizat Abdul Jalil warned that a repeat of the black incident of 13th May could happen again if the people did not return the mandate to the UMNO-BN reign at Putrajaya in the upcoming GE-13.
Shahrizat was also involved in a scandal involving the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) gave the speech allegedly containing elements of violence, and threats during an assembly last week.
Haris says that the UMNO assembly this time gave a clear message that UMNO’s leadership is growing wary and fearful of a loss in the upcoming GE-13.
“UMNO’s leadership are loud and proud when it comes to giving speeches but they panic because it seems that PR’s chances of a victory in the upcoming general elections seem increasingly clear.”