Umno okay with having two strong leaders in Zahid, Najib - Shahril

Umno has no problem with having two apparent leaders - party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and his predecessor Najib Abdul Razak - according to the party’s information chief Shahril Hamdan.

Shahril (above) denied that Najib's prominence was an obstacle to Zahid's effective leadership in Umno.

"No, Umno is blessed with a number of strong personalities that have their own personal brand, their own personal popularity but a lot of their independent popularity has often been overblown or misinterpreted as there being tension.

“But rather, I think everyone is able to speak to one another. We’ve seen photos of meetings, we see all of those things indicate that, actually, the individuals themselves get along,’’ he was quoted as saying in an interview with the Malay Mail.

Najib stepped down as Umno president and Barisan Nasional chairperson on May 12, 2018 following BN’s defeat in the 14th general election. He was then slapped with multiple charges relating to 1MDB.

Zahid took over as acting president and was officially elected as Umno president in the party elections in June 2018.

Zahid, however, is also facing 47 charges of corruption, money laundering and criminal breach of trust charges.

Zahid had taken leave for seven months in Dec 2018, handing over his duties to his deputy Mohamad Hasan who then carried out duties as acting Umno president.

Mohamad, who is fondly known as Tok Mat, is seen as another faction in the party.

In the interview, Shahril denied factionalism in the party and said this was indeed a sign of lively and respectful discourse within the party.

"I'm sure there are disagreements here and there but that is a healthy set of things to have.

“In terms of the party structure, it is clear that the party president is at the top and Tok Mat is the deputy,” he said.

“These two run the show but if there is any key policy decision, obviously the president has the final say together with the supreme council as a whole.

“I think that’s not a big thing that’s happening. It is just right now we have a few personalities that are really strong and have big followership but that doesn't translate into tension,’’ he said.  - Mkini