‘Umno constitution amended many times before, including during Dr M era’

 

Umno information chief Shahril Hamdan has come to the defence of his party, stating that yesterday was not the first time an amendment was introduced to the Umno constitution.

Responding to Pejuang chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad who alleged that the Umno leadership was disrespecting its constitution, Shahril (above) pointed out that Mahathir had also done so when he was at the helm of Umno.

"I don’t think Umno has to justify its internal actions to a rival party. But because the person who said this is also a former Umno president, I think it is proper for me to remind him.

"This is not the first time an amendment to the Umno constitution has been done. Between 1987 and to date, amendments to the constitution that touched on party polls have been made three times,” Shahril said on Facebook.

"In 1987, when Mahathir was the party president, the 10 bonus votes system for every nomination of the president and deputy president posts were introduced.

"In 1998, when Mahathir was still the president, a quota system for top party leadership posts was introduced.

"Does it mean that the leadership then was being disrespectful of the party constitution?" he asked.

All constitutions can be amended

To drive his point further, Shahril touched on the issue of the Federal Constitution, which he said had been amended 23 times during Mahathir's first tenure as the prime minister.

Another amendment was done to the country's Constitution after Mahathir became premier again in 2018.

"Does this mean that (Mahathir) also did not respect the country's Constitution?

"The answer to all the questions above is no, of course. The constitution of an organisation gets amended to suit the time. It can be amended further from time to time, as long as it does not contradict the party's spirit and principles.

"And lastly, it is better to change the party constitution than change parties multiple times," Shahril said, referring to Mahathir who had changed parties twice since he left Umno.

Earlier today, Mahathir reportedly said that Umno was being disrespectful to its own party constitution after the latter passed an amendment to delay party polls until after the general election.

"They know that if there is a party election then Umno will split. So they took the easy way out by influencing the government to delay the election.

"If this is only for a short period of time it would be okay. But this is for several months. It means that we do not respect our own constitution," he told reporters in Langkawi, as quoted by Sinar Harian. - Mkini