The two points of view are those of Umno treasurer Tengku Adnan Mansor, and former president Najib Razak, responding to recent speculation about former members wishing to return to the party.
The most prominent of the former members is Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who left Umno to set up PPBM, and later resigned to start another party, Pejuang. In a recent interview, he said he could not rejoin Umno if certain “rogues” were still there.
But Najib said in an interview with Astro Awani that returnees could not set their own conditions and instead must accept those conditions in the party, as well as those already there.
On the other hand Tengku Adnan said returnees should first be made to attend a special course or class on Umno’s history and its struggles.
Tengku Adnan, commonly known as Ku Nan, said in a Facebook posting today he had been amused by recent media reports and social media postings about Umno from some “deserters” and others.
“Perhaps they miss the BN era,” he said. “Returning to Umno is easy, but before that, attend a course or a special class to understand the foundations and reasons for Umno’s establishment.”
Tengku Adnan said that while politics was fluid, there was a need to be firm against those who are two-faced. It was not appropriate for such people to be upheld while others had stayed loyal to the party through tough times, including having its funds frozen, its leaders dragged to court and coming under pressure.
Najib said that those who wanted to return to Umno could be considered but it must be on the party’s terms.
“They have to accept Umno’s policies and accept anyone who is in Umno. They cannot impose conditions, they have to accept that,” he said in the interview.
He said Umno did not belong to any individual or the party president or former president, but to its three million members, “people like me, all of us, we are loyal to Umno, we never left Umno”.
Recently, Mahathir who is at odds with Najib, was reported as saying he still loved Umno and would return to the party if its “corrupt leaders” were no longer there.
Najib did not mention Mahathir but said “Those who left and wish to return, we can consider, they have to accept; they want to rejoin Umno, accept Umno’s policies, accept whoever is in Umno.”