KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 20 — Umno has not made any effective improvements since Election 2008 general and is unable to garner support from Malays, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed has said ahead of the party’s general assembly at the end of the month. The party’s longest-serving president was quoted by its newspaper Utusan Malaysia today saying Umno currently lacked good, credible leaders and that it was a pale shadow of its former glory.
“Umno became badly damaged when Tun Abdullah Badawi took over. Because he prioritised his family and there were so many corruption allegations. And everyone knew about his son-in-law’s involvement,” he said, referring to Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin.
“This damaged Umno has been inherited by Datuk Seri Najib Razak for him to fix. Umno needs time before it can become stronger.
“But he (Najib) is busy and does not have enough time,” he added in an interview published in the Malay daily’s Sunday edition Mingguan Malaysia.
In one of his harshest’s remarks against his party, Dr Mahathir said the issue of credible leaders affected Umno’s divisional level as well as the central leadership.
He said that some Umno leaders were only interested in holding on to a particular post within the party, or wanted to contest in the next general election and did not care about strengthening the party.
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