Umno Supreme Council member Isham Jalil has proposed the party review its ties with the DAP as a current ally in the government with Pakatan Harapan.

Isham, who also identified two other reasons for Umno’s drubbing in the six state elections, said the party’s move to accept working with the DAP remains a sensitive issue.

“About the DAP, I have previously said this is a very sensitive matter for our grassroots.

“(I said) If we force our grassroot to vote for the DAP, they will resist and likely not come out to vote, or worse they protest and vote PN,” he said, stressing that his prediction had been proven true with Umno’s performance in the six states.

BN through Umno – after component parties MCA and MIC agreed to sit out of the state elections – saw the Malay party winning only 19 out of 108 seats it contested, 14 of which are in Negeri Sembilan, led by Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan.

Of the remaining five seats, Umno won two out of the 12 seats it contested in Selangor, two in Penang and one in Kelantan.

Lost all seats

Umno also lost all seats it contested for in Kedah and Terengganu, the latter of which also saw PN winning all 32 seats with zero opposition.

In Selangor, Isham also noted that PN candidates received more votes yesterday than when they contested under a PKR ticket, a sign that they now also received support from Umno members.

Overall, Isham said his travels across six states in the last two weeks to campaign and engage with Umno grassroots had identified three main questions.

This comprises ties with DAP, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, and jailed former Umno president Najib Razak.

“On issues of the president, I have answered to the best of my ability. I’m not a president’s man but I respect the institution.

“I appeal to the president to come down and personally meet with the grassroots, to hold dialogues with them in order to repair the situation,” said Isham.

A former special officer to Najib, Isham also reiterated his stance that BN would have stand a better chance in elections with Najib on the campaign trail.

“We must do something. Otherwise Umno will continue to lose and risk being extinct come the next 16th general elections,” he warned.  MKINI

Calls for Umno to be reformed are becoming louder following the party’s poor showing in the six state polls.

After getting totally wiped out in Terengganu and Kedah, as well as suffering huge losses in Selangor, Penang, and Kelantan, voices from within the party believe it is time for Umno to have a change of leadership.

One of them is Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh, who subtly called for party reform to regain the people’s trust.

“The responsibility for Umno leaders now is to gain back the people’s trust in Umno.

“We need to prioritise being the voice of the people instead of fighting for any leader.

“Have the courage to change if we do not want Umno to lose its relevance,” he said in a Facebook post this morning.

In a separate statement, former Terengganu Umno chief Idris Jusoh did not mince his words and suggested that Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi resign.

He believed the deputy prime minister should take responsibility for the electoral drubbing.

“Umno suffered a major defeat in the six state elections yesterday. Umno also lost 100 percent in Terengganu.

“Zahid should resign,” Idris said.

The state elections yesterday saw Umno securing only 19 state seats in Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Penang, and Kelantan, with no victories in Terengganu and Kedah.

The results showed that the Pakatan Harapan-BN pact was only successful in Negeri Sembilan, where a two-thirds majority could be won with BN contributing 14 out of 31 seats for the state government.

BN also failed to contribute more than two seats to the pact in all other states, including the crucial state of Kedah, where they suffered a wipeout.

In Terengganu, both BN and Harapan were also wiped out and saw Perikatan Nasional make a clean sweep.

Meanwhile, former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin expects that Zahid will not step down even if BN performs poorly in the state elections.

Khairy, who was sacked from Umno, reportedly said in Rembau yesterday that Umno would instead feign ignorance and it will be business as usual.

“Zahid will not step down. Umno will continue to run as usual.

“The party will act clueless,” he said, as quoted by the News Straits Times.  MKINI

MKINI

.