‘Speak up, be ready for change’

An Umno leader asks members to have the courage to change leadership and speak up against their superiors.

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KUALA LUMPUR: An Umno leader has encouraged party members to change party leadership frequently and have the courage to speak up against their superiors.

Cheras division chief Syed Ali Alhabshee said Umno has a bright future if members were willing to change party leadership on the ground.

“The members have to be brave to get good leaders in division and branch levels. These leaders have to take the initiative to fight. We don’t want leaders to take over the position and keep quiet,” Syed Ali told FMT in an interview here.

He urged his peers to discard their “selfish” attitude and to always “be ready to make way” for other members to assume their respective positions.

“Give other people a chance to lead. Don’t say that you are going to stay there forever. Some people (Umno leaders) are 10 term MPs. If you’re not the PM or deputy, then make way for others,” he said.

“Don’t tell me you must have some sort of position then only you can do your work,” he added.

Asked how he was intending to change the mindset of fellow Umno leaders, Syed Ali said: “We can make them understand that this is for the future, and not for ourselves”.

“We tell them don’t be selfish. The problem is that they are very selfish and don’t think for the future,” he said.

“Malaysia is for everybody and everyone deserves good treatment in the country. Everybody gets to benefit.”

Speak up against superiors

Syed Ali also said it was very rare of Umno leaders to speak out and give ideas, as opposed to openly supporting their superiors.

“They dare not comment. They dare not assume responsibility for what they say,” he said.

However, Syed Ali believed that lesser party members need not have same opinions with their leaders.

“If the [Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak] wants to say it another way, I will say it my way. You have to respect my statement, like how I respect theirs’,” he said.

“It is their view. It doesn’t mean when you’re in the same party, everybody must be the same. Sometimes my views are critical,” he added.

The outspoken Syed Ali is known for criticising his superiors, including calling for former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and incumbent Wanita Umno chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil to resign.

Recently, he criticised Shahrizat for saying that a contest for the Wanita chief’s post would lead to a “divide and split in the party”.

Shahrizat, who was a cabinet minister for 11 years, had her career derailed by her husband’s alleged involvement in the National Feedlot Centre scandal that PKR began exposing in 2011.