Faisal S Hazis of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia says that Khairy has been the only Umno presidential candidate to come out with ideas for the party’s reform. However, Awang Azman Pawi of Universiti Malaya has his reservations, saying Khairy is also part of the old Umno.
Khairy has declared he will contest for the vacant Umno president’s post at the party elections on June 30. Others who have declared their candidacy are de facto acting president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Gua Musang Umno division chief Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, businessman and blogger Rahmat Azim Abdul Aziz, and Umno members Rosile Saat, Mohamad Iqbal Maricair and Yusof Musa.
Faisal and Awang Azman’s arguments follow a recent Facebook post by lawyer-activist Azhar Harun who said Khairy would be the face of a “new Umno” that was more liberal and progressive than its current form.
Awang Azman disagreed. He said Khairy was as much a part of the old Umno as both Zahid and Tengku Razaleigh.
“Khairy is an Umno youth chief and an MP; he shares much of the blame when it comes to what Umno and BN are today,” Awang Azman told FMT. “Don’t forget Khairy was also a minister, meaning he was also part of the decision-making process with the Cabinet.”
Awang Azman said he believed the only way Umno would see the reforms it has admitted that it needs, was to appoint new faces as leaders.
Faisal, however, disagreed with the need for new faces.
“You are trying to win a party election. Someone without a proven track record to lead one of the biggest Malay opposition parties doesn’t make sense,” he told FMT.
Faisal said he agreed with Azhar’s position that Khairy was Umno’s best chance at reform, saying there were two reasons for this: Khairy was one of the first to admit defeat, and was the only one to propose a reform agenda.
“Acknowledging mistakes and weaknesses is the first step. Meanwhile, Zahid and Ku Li (Tengku Razaleigh) said they lost because of the perception created by Pakatan Harapan. That indicates that they didn’t accept defeat nor the decision made by the majority of Malaysians.
“If you are in a state of denial, how are you going to move forward with reform? There’s no two ways about this, Umno needs to reform, it cannot stay the way it is now because it has been rejected.”
He claimed the only Umno leader to echo the need for reform has been Khairy.
“He even went as far as to suggest that Umno open up its membership to other races. Ku Li said the party needs to remain as a Malay-based party which means that for Ku Li it’s still largely about maintaining a status quo and the only thing he wants to offer is his leadership.”
Faisal noted that new leaders were not the only thing Umno needed.
Recently, Ku Li was reported as voicing his disappointment over the party’s involvement in money politics, saying it never used to tolerate immoral activities