UMNO has recovered from defections and shock of party leaders being hauled up to courts after the last general election and is now on a stable footing, said Abdul Rahman Dahlan.
The Supreme Council member and Tuaran Umno chief said the party is doing much better now than rival Bersatu, the party led by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to the GE14 victory on May 9 last year.
“We became very unstable. Former prime minister Najib Razak was taken down. He is now in and out of court.
“Then we elected former deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as president. But he, too, ran into problems.
“Indeed, for the first six months after the elections, Umno was in a mess, unstable. Now it’s April 2019, look how fast we have turned around.
“Umno is the most the stable party in the country at the moment. Overall, Sabah Umno, too, is back on its feet,” he said during a meet-the-people session in Tuaran on Sunday.
Sabah Umno, at present, has only one assemblyman – Sg Sibuga’s Musa Aman, but Rahman said that did not matter as Sabah Umno was now closer to the people on the ground.
“The funny thing is that the more we lose our elected reps, the stronger we become and the more by-elections we won,” he said referring to the three straight by-election wins in Cameron Highlands, Semenyih and Rantau.
“We know that the power of political party doesn’t lie with the wakil rakyat any more, it lies with the ordinary people.”
The former minister also said Bersatu was, in the meantime, losing its momentum after GE14.
He added that there was little hype in the launch of Bersatu in Sabah on April 6 and the excitement seemed to have lost almost immediately.
Bersatu has also failed to gain any traction in Sarawak, he said.
“When Umno entered Sabah 25 years ago, there were many ministers, officers around to help strengthen Umno. But I don’t see this in Bersatu.
“Malaysians right now may subscribe to Dr Mahathir’s Malay-centric policies but in reality, the ruling party is in a mess,” he said, adding that this was why Bersatu will not be a threat to Umno in Sabah.
Sabah Umno to get ‘independence’ this year, says Rahman Dahlan
UMNO will amend its constitution this year to grant autonomy to its Sabah chapter, said supreme council member Abdul Rahman Dahlan.
This will allow Sabah Umno to its own chief, and candidates for election and chief minister.
Abdul Rahman, who is former Kota Belud MP, said a special section on the chapter’s autonomy will be adopted into the party constitution at its annual general meeting end of this year.
“It will spell out what is it that we (Sabah Umno) can do on our own.
“This means Sabah Umno will no longer need the approval from supreme council members as all matters are decided by the state leadership,” he said during an Umno meet-the-people session in Tuaran, Sabah on Sunday.
He also said Sabah Umno will also be seeking one quota for the post of vice-president.
“It looks like the leadership is agreeable but it has to be brought to the meeting this year end.”
He said if the supreme council agrees, the post will not be appointed, but contested among Sabah Umno leaders so it will be a democratic choice.
Sabah Umno has been shocked by defections following the party’s defeat in the state during the last general election.
Almost all of its state reps and MPs have defected to Bersatu, leaving only former chief minister Musa Aman as the sole Umno rep in the Sabah assembly.
THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.