Ku Li against opening Umno to non-Malays

Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Tengku Hamzah disagrees with the idea of opening up Umno to non-Malays, as has been suggested by some of its leaders following BN’s devastating defeat in the recent general election.

Tengku Razaleigh insisted that the sentiment on the ground dictates that Umno be kept an exclusively Malay party.

"You can add one or two non-Malays, like some parties have done, and label them as multiracial parties. But the face is still not multiracial.

"I can say I am a multiracial, because I used to have a non-Malay wife, but I am not multiracial in that sense," he said at a press conference at his office in Kuala Lumpur today.

Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin had initially mooted the idea of opening up the party up to all Malaysians, saying that the heavy polls defeat should force a rethink of its raison d'être.

Tengku Razaleigh, a member of Umno for over 60 years, said such a move would go against the reason Umno was set up in the first place.

"It was born like that. Umno was formed by the gathering of Malay organisations in 1946 because of the threat to the sovereignty of the country," he said.

Umno, Tengku Razaleigh added, were heroes for leading the fight against British colonialists.

He also pointed out that even Umno founder Onn Jaafar, who first brought up the idea of making the party multiracial just five years after its establishment, was then asked to leave the party.

[More to follow]