Umno’s system has failed grassroots, says Ku Li

Veteran Umno leader Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (centre) says today the party needs a new system which allowed members to have proper representation. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Kamal Ariffin, October 12, 2015.

Umno’s current system has failed its members whose voices are drowned out by the leadership, veteran party leader Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah said today.

The party needed a new system which allowed members to have proper representation so that their voices could be heard.

“The party system has failed. Now it seems to be dominated by the voices of the leaders rather than grassroots level, there’s a big difference so because of that, I think it has failed.

“It seemed the ideas are coming from upstairs down, rather than downstairs up,” Tengku Razaleigh, who is also the Gua Musang MP, told a press conference at the Perdana Leadership Foundation today.

He had joined other Barisan Nasional (BN) veterans, including his once-rival for the party presidency Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, in condemning Putrajaya’s use of an anti-terrorism law to silence government critics.

Meanwhile, Dr Mahathir denounced Umno's amended electoral regulations which allowed for direct elections by members, saying that in actual fact, it was divisions who decided on the next crop of party leaders and not rank-and-file members.

"It is not enlarging voters base, but actually reducing it," he said.

- TMI