Arrogance was Umno’s downfall, says Ku Li

The Umno veteran says as long as this culture of arrogance continues, the party will not see the reforms it needs.

Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Khairy Jamaluddin took part in the presidential debate. (Astro Awani live screengrab)

PETALING JAYA: Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah blames the arrogance of some Umno leaders as the main reason for the party’s downfall in the last general election (GE14).

“It was as if there was a sense of elitism. They did not want to mix or speak to the people and it was very difficult for the people to see them,” he said.

“Naturally, people got angry with these leaders. They saw that they only mixed with the people when it was near voting time. After they were voted in, they lived lavish lifestyles.

“What is all this? I don’t need to tell you that we should not be doing this.”

He said this arrogance would also be one of the biggest stumbling blocks to Umno’s efforts to implement much-needed reforms.

“As long as there is this arrogance, there will not be any changes in Umno.”

Tengku Razaleigh, popularly known as Ku Li, was speaking at a debate held at Astro Awani’s studio which also involved Umno acting president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin. All three are among five candidates vying for the Umno president’s post tomorrow.

During the debate, Tengku Razaleigh pointed out that Zahid had mentioned recently that several individuals would be investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) following the freeze on Umno’s accounts.

He asked Zahid whether those who would be investigated would be a liability to Umno.

“We know through media reports that more than 90% of Umno’s accounts were frozen.

“Those who accepted funding from 1MDB will be investigated. We should not point fingers only at certain candidates,” Zahid responded.

Khairy pointed out that Tengku Razaleigh had said he would only serve for one term (three years). The former Umno Youth chief had said previously that this was one of the reasons why he had decided to contest the president’s post.

He asked how the person who would take over from Tengku Razaleigh would be able to do well in such a short time as he would only have two years until the next general election.

“I said a term because the contest is only for a term. I might contest again but I would prefer to rest in my age,” Tengku Razaleigh responded.

“We will try to do what we need to do for Umno within the three years.”

Zahid asked Tengku Razaleigh, as a former finance minister, how the government could help the economy.

“We should stop using government funds to invest. Many GLCs (government-linked companies) and GLAs (government-linked agencies) are unable to turn a profit because they are not so sensitive to such matters,” Tengku Razaleigh responded.

Khairy asked Zahid what his plans were to attract the youths.

“We need to be more effective in utilising social media as most of those who use social media are the youths,” Zahid said.

“We must also offer them a new deal in the coming election. We should listen to what they want instead of telling them what they need.”

When Khairy was asked the same question by Zahid, Khairy said: “We need to create more youth icons whom the youth can look up to. And once we have these people, we should let them contest in the next general election.” -FMT