‘Don’t sabotage Umno again’

The party's information chief says Umno candidates lost in the last general election because of sabotage within the party.

KUALA LUMPUR: The defeat of Umno candidates in the last general election is due to sabotage among party members, which is also among the factors for the loss of Barisan Nasional’s (BN) two-thirds majority, Umno information chief Ahmad Maslan said.

“This is the feedback I received based on my survey on 80 per cent of the constituencies in Malaysia, including the black and white areas. “Please don’t sabotage the party again.

“We should not put our own interests above the party’s,” he told Bernama here.

He said there were three factors for sabotage, namely because the person did not like the selected candidate, the person was not selected as a candidate and the person cannot stay loyal and had planned to quit the party.

As such Ahmad, who is also Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, said the upcoming Umno general assembly should become the final battlefield for Umno members to get rid of the sabotage virus in the party before facing the 13th general election.

He said the majority of the delegates at the assembly were the winnable candidates who were also capable of being the carriers of the sabotage virus.

“So, they should be able to explain to the party’s top leadership the preparations undertaken in their divisions to face the general election, besides producing evidence on what they have done to prove their loyalty to the party,” he said.

Ahmad also proposed for Umno members to renew their pledge of loyalty at the general assembly, which will be held at the Putra World Trade Centre from Nov 27 to Dec 1.

He said this year’s assembly was vital to ensure that the party had reached its full-preparedness stage to help BN in restoring its tradition of having two-thirds majority, winning back the states currently under the opposition and increasing the number of popular votes in the 13th general election.

“The factors of ABATA, where A stands for ‘agama’ (Islamic religious), BA for ‘bangsa’ (race) and TA for ‘tanah air’ (country), must be observed by all Umno members if they want the country to continue to be governed BN in the future,” he said.

When asked on Umno’s additional weapon to face the general election, Ahmad said Umno’ barometer indicator would also be on new voters after the pro-aspiration teams won the most seats in the campus elections.

“These new voters have positive mindsets with long-term visions and this can really help our election machinery in the general election,” he added.

Bernama