UMNO To Fairly Assess Role Of Returning Leaders - Ahmad Zahid

KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 (Bernama) -- UMNO will fairly assess the role of leaders who rejoin the party after previously being expelled, including opportunities to contest in the 16th General Election (GE16), which will be determined based on winnability, said UMNO president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

He said no empirical assessment had so far been carried out on the impact of the return of the leaders through the Gagasan Rumah Bangsa initiative.

“So we must be fair to them in demonstrating their commitment to continue contributing to UMNO,” he said in a special interview held recently in conjunction with UMNO’s 80th anniversary.

The Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman said opportunities to contest in GE16 would depend greatly on a candidate’s ability to win in a particular constituency.

 “It depends on the electability (of the candidate) for the respective state or parliamentary seat,” he said.

On April 18, UMNO secretary-general Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said former UMNO vice-president Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, former Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and former foreign minister Tan Sri Dr Syed Hamid Albar were among 6,252 former leaders and members at division and branch levels nationwide who had been readmitted into UMNO through the Gagasan Rumah Bangsa initiative.

Gagasan Rumah Bangsa is UMNO’s reunification initiative introduced by Ahmad Zahid to unite Malays and welcome former members back into the party.

Introduced at last year’s UMNO General Assembly, the initiative serves as an open platform to facilitate membership registration, including through online applications without complicated procedures.

Asked whether the initiative showed that UMNO was finding it increasingly difficult to remain a unifying platform, Ahmad Zahid, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, stressed that the party’s struggle remained intact as the core of the country’s Malay-Muslim political landscape.

“It does not mean that because the DNA of any existing Malay-Muslim party leadership comes from UMNO. We can see that the parties that exist now are splinters of UMNO.

“… and there is no need for us to differ over who is more Malay or who is more Islamic… what is important is that the people must be engaged and assisted,” he said.

Ahmad Zahid said the current approach also required all parties to look at the national agenda more broadly, including in education and the economy, without being overly tied to party interests alone.

“This must be viewed rationally, not only from the narrow perspective of certain leaders whose thinking is still too narrow,” he said.

Commenting on the status of MIC’s relationship within BN, Ahmad Zahid once again stressed that the component party remained with the coalition and that issues related to the matter had already been resolved.

-- BERNAMA