Najib rallies party ahead of possible snap polls

By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani

 

Datuk Seri Najib Razak rallied his party tonight to remain united as the country faces the prospect of possible snap polls at the end of the year.

The Umno president told delegates to place public before personal interest, stressing the party needs to fix its crippled image.

“We can see the secret of our party’s success by looking at our history and that is those before us were loyal and willing to serve the party.

“If Umno is united, we can ensure that Umno remains the only party for the Malays. Malay is Umno and Umno is Malay,” he told delegates during the party’s 65th anniversary celebrations at PWTC here tonight.

He also admitted Election 2008 had been a “nightmare” for Umno. — Picture by Choo Choy May

Najib, however, admitted that the party was still divided into different factions.

“If there were no factions and no political factionalism in Umno, we could be a strong party but is everything really solved? Not yet. Why? Because there are still some amongst us who remain divided.

“And why should we celebrate our anniversary if we cannot put aside our differences? Have we really served the people and met them? Not yet? Then our pledge for our 65th anniversary is to get our party closer to the hearts of the people,” he said.

He also reminded those not nominated as candidates for the impending 13th general election to refrain from sulking and continue helping the party.

“Are we really loyal to Umno? Are we ready to serve the party if we are not chosen as candidates? Please don’t sulk and leave the country when not chosen as candidates,” he said.

Najib said that Umno has come a long way since its disastrous performance in the 2008 election but warned the party not to rest on its laurels after winning the Sarawak elections.

“Our feelings may not be the same as during the nightmare of the 12th general election, which caused us to question if the party still had public support. We also lost many by-elections after that.

“But after making several changes in a period of one year till today, Umno has evolved into a party that has regained its legitimacy and standing as a distinguished party in the country,” he said.

Najib stressed that Umno needs to fix its public image. — Picture by Choo Choy May

BN experienced its worse electoral performance during Election 2008, when the ruling coalition lost its two-thirds parliamentary majority in a result, which sparked the formation of the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) opposition bloc and led to the eventual resignation of Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as prime minister.

The Malaysian Insider understands that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is likely to delay snap polls until the end of this year or early 2012 as his party hunts for funds to finance a campaign to court Bumiputera and Indian voters and secure a two-thirds parliamentary majority.

It is understood Umno’s coffers were depleted after BN spent some RM500 million for the April 16 Sarawak election.

Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, however, told The Malaysian Insider that he believes Umno’s increasingly ultra-Malay stance as well as the emergence of a sex video aimed at discrediting PR’s image are definite signs that general elections will be called by August.

But BN insiders say Najib is cautious about calling elections soon as he wants to regain the coalition’s two-thirds parliamentary majority which now appears impossible with the Chinese snub continuing in the Sarawak election.

Chinese-based MCA took a battering in the historic general election — which also robbed BN of its customary two-thirds majority — when the party won only 15 out of 40 parliamentary seats it contested.