GE15: Volunteering to lead, a common practice in UMNO - Ahmad Shabery
NURUL HUDA HUSAIN10 Nov 2022 05:14pm
Ahmad Shabery and his Facebook post on Thursday.
He stressed that the matter has also become a common practice and is further strengthened by the 'record' of UMNO being the party with the most presidents.
However Shabery claimed that during the time when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim were in UMNO, members were prevented from competing for the party's number one and two positions.
"In UMNO, volunteering to lead the party is common. In fact, only UMNO is the party with the most party presidents.
"From Datuk Onn Jaafar, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak, Tun Hussein Onn, Tun Dr Mahathir, Pak Lah (Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi), Datuk Seri Najib Razak and now Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, there were eight of them. The future of the party has always been determined by its members.
"For other parties, the same people will remain. If it changes, it's only among the wives or children of the members," he said in a post on his Facebook page today.
On Wednesday, Sungai Buloh Parliamentary candidate Khairy Jamaluddin had expressed his desire to lead UMNO and then become Prime Minister one day.
According to the Minister of Health, he was contesting as a BN candidate in the Sungai Buloh parliamentary seat this time with the aim of 'destroying' himself, due to the challenge he was taking on.
Ahmad Shabery also claimed that when Dr Mahathir and Anwar were leading the party,many resolutions were made so that there would be no contest for the president and deputy president posts, in addition to introducing complicated rules.
However, he said, at the moment the leadership is no longer among around the 1,400 delegates at the UMNO General Assembly (PAU) but has gone down to almost 500,000 representatives at the grassroots level, unlike in the days of Dr Mahathir who is now Chairman of Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang). and Anwar who now leads the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).
"Now all these obstacles are gone. It makes UMNO the most open and dynamic party.
"Does PKR have the courage if anyone wants to change its president? Ask Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) also or other parties," he questioned.
