UMNO AGM | Umno, the country's once biggest ruling party sets up a fund on Dec 5 to seek public donations in the run-up to the 15th general election.
The accounts of Umno's main body, several state liaisons and divisions have been frozen since June 2018 for allegedly receiving funds from 1MDB.
In June, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) initiated forfeiture suits to recover RM270 million from 41 groups and individuals. Of this amount, RM212 million was sought from Umno divisions.
Now, how does the 3.29 million party members from 191 divisions and 22,156 branches fare when the Umno faces financial constraint.
Sungai Besar Umno division head Jamal Md Yunos said the defeat of BN in the 14th general election followed by Umno's accounts frozen caused the standstill in many divisions nationwide as the money ran out.
He said the disruption of funds from the party caught most of the divisions off guard, particularly after the Umno elections was held in June 2018.
"Approximately 60 percent of the elected division chiefs are newbies, they never become ministers," he told Malaysiakini when met at the ongoing Umno general assembly.
Jamal (above) said he knew about the problems faced by these divisions when he got in touch with them.
However, he said the situation improved after grassroots members forked out money or seek donations to fund party activities.
Umno also received donations from people who were previously aided by the party.
In Sungai Besar, Jamal said he sought donations to settle RM12,000 assessment fees annually and RM4,000 monthly electricity bills.
"We have 16,000 members in Sungai Besar, if 1,000 of them fork out money, (then we will have enough of funds)," he said.
Businesspersons also resumed their donations to Umno as they felt that the Pakatan Harapan government failed to come up with policies beneficial to the business community, he added.
"The people simply want Umno continue to survive.
"Umno's organisation and members are not as pampered as before and the grassroots are more independent," he said.
Jamal also sees the inking of Muafakat National charter between Umno and PAS as an opportunity to learn from PAS on how the Islamic party run activities without any resources or contributions from the party.
Puteri Farhana Megat Ahmad Shahrani (below), a delegate from Kuala Kangsar Puteri Umno division also viewed the past 18 months as a learning curve for the party.
"We were sad at first but later started to accept the reality. We just move on.
"This is good for us to learn from the past. We are now fighting for the real struggle. With the party fund set up, we can learn to adopt the spirit as the opposition," she said.
The spirit of Umno delegates and leaders who attended the party assembly this year is comparatively high as compared with last year, she added.
Kulim Bandar Baharu Wanita Umno division chief Nazira Abdul Rahim noted her division and 83 branches were once impacted due to lack of funding.
"We were creative and our spirits are high. We went to visit (the branches committee members) and told them we have bigger responsibility (to attend party meeting) because we had lost," she said.
She said the attendance of women leaders in branches increase by threefold.
"Previously, we have catering (after the meeting), now we have potluck," she added.
Abdul Shan Nuasan (below), a 64-year-old from Semporna division said his flight from Sabah to attend the general assembly at PWTC, Kuala Lumpur was funded by Sabah Umno.
"A total of 500 delegates came from Sabah to attend the assembly.
"Sabah Umno does not face financial problems...But I hope the main body can channel some funds to help our expansion in Sabah," said Abdul Shan.
Meanwhile, Abdul Karim Ibrahim (below), a 62-year-old party observer from Rompin division, said the change of government in Putrajaya did not impact Umno's operation in the BN-led Pahang government.
"(The Muafakat National charter) make us easier to run our operation," he said.
He, however, said the party was cutting costs in some party affairs and activities.
"Previously we attend the meetings with all our buses being sponsored, now we have to fork out money to come here and only delegates got sponsored.
"Due to our love for the party, we still come to show support and we understand the situation," he said. - Mkini
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