Khairul Azwan pledges to set age limit for Umno Youth top posts

Umno Youth chief candidate Khairul Azwan Harun has promised to limit the age of contenders for youth wing's top two posts to 40 from the current no age limit rule.

Unveiling his election manifesto today for party polls this weekend, the Umno vice-chief also pledged to reduce the qualifying age for membership to 35 years.

This is five years younger than stipulated by the party constitution.

"This will be my main agenda (if elected as youth chief). I will implement the pledges in three years. It will involve a party constitutional amendment," he said.

"I am inspired to bring the change and I pledge in my manifesto to make the change we need to set the age limit to 40 years old," he declared.

"This is to ensure the youth wing will become a training platform for the youth leadership," he told a press conference.

He said the move will ensure that Umno Youth members are young, fresh and accepted by all.

He reiterated that his past mistake was that he was too loyal and this resulted in him overlooking issues that needed to be pointed out to the leadership.

"I had openly apologised previously (for my weaknesses)," he said.

Khairul Azwan said a youth chief should be a transitional and transformational leader that could bring change to the Umno Youth leadership and members.

"This is not about me becoming youth chief but about preparing the youth leadership for the next general election," he said, adding he will look for young talent able to compete with Pakatan Harapan leaders.

'No' to non-Malays

He also said Umno should not be opened to non-Malays as the party needs to be preserved as only for Malays and the bumiputera.

He, however, proposed that BN should introduce direct membership for all Malaysians.

"There are many out there that perhaps do not want to be a member of a component party of BN but would love to be a member of BN," he said.

He also opined that BN members should be allowed to choose the leadership of the coalition.

In November 2010, the BN supreme council agreed to amend its constitution to introduce direct associate and affiliate memberships.

However, there was no follow-up action to implement this direct membership proposal. - Mkini