Emulate Ghafar Baba’s devotion, Najib tells Umno members

Memorial prayers held on 10th anniversary of death of Umno veteran and former deputy president.

MALACCA: Umno members have been urged to remember and emulate the late Tun Abdul Ghafar Baba’s leadership values of devotion, loyalty and authenticity, said Umno president Najib Razak.

He said Abdul Ghafar, a former Umno secretary-general and deputy president, had shown devotion to the leader, undivided loyalty to Umno and was a manifestation of the authenticity of the principles of the Umno struggles.

Najib urged that the Tun Abdul Ghafar Baba Memorial be rebuilt at the site in Peringgit, for which he was prepared to give an allocation for the project.

Speaking at a memorial tahlil and prayer session on the 10th anniversary of Ghafar’s death, Najib said all Umno members must also remember the messages of past leaders who had wished that the present generation uphold the responsibility of defending the party of the Malays and not to abandon or betray the party.

Najib said that although past leaders “wanted us to defend and uphold Umno…because as long as there is Umno, the struggles can be continued, but without Umno everything will be destroyed. Like Encik Ghafar said, without Umno there is no defence and everything will perish,” he said.

(During his lifetime, Abdul Ghafar did not accept honours until his retirement from the deputy premiership, after which he was made a Tun.)

Najib said Umno members should seek a consensus if there were differences, so that Umno would be united under one front.

Najib said Abdul Ghafar was a symbol for the Umno struggles up to this day and did not look at position as being important in his struggles.

“Encik Ghafar had never been angry or sulky, not being appointed as Deputy Prime Minister was not a platform for his struggles, he had said that position was not important, but Umno was everything and should be looked after,” he said.

He said Abdul Ghafar was most outstanding in grassroot politics and had always been close and knew the issues concerning the people and was “a man of the people”.

“Encik Ghafar could not stand long meetings, I still remember when he chaired the cabinet meeting as Deputy Prime Minister, less than one hour it (the meeting) was over, but Encik Ghafar was more the man of the people,” he said.

– BERNAMA