Ku Li going on roadshow to seek support for Umno president’s post

Monday, 05 May 2008
(The Star) BATU PAHAT: Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah is going on a nationwide roadshow to garner support from Umno’s 3.4 million members to contest the party president’s post.
Tengku Razaleigh, affectionately known as Ku Li, said: “I am pleading with all members to support me in contesting the president’s post. I will be visiting Muar, Sungai Petani, Alor Star, Penang, Pahang and Sabah.”

The party constitution requires a candidate for the president’s post to secure 40 nominations.

Ku Li, who had visited Gua Musang, Subang and Batu Pahat, said he did not have a specific time frame for the roadshow but did not rule out that it might run until the party’s general assembly in December.

He was not challenging current party president Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, he clarified, but instead was merely offering himself to serve as party president since the current president’s term had expired.

“If my own division nominates me and I get enough nominations. I will contest,” he said after giving a talk and hosting a dialogue session on “bringing back the relevance of Umno for the Malays” to some 150 members yesterday.

He vowed to bring back the party’s original struggle should he assume the presidency.

“The party’s original struggle is to defend Islam, defend our language and traditions and defend our homeland,” he said.

“Nowadays, most leaders speak English, and not Malay, even though it is our national language. This should not be the way.”

He added that a revolusi senyap or quiet revolution must occur in the party for it to rehabilitate itself.

“Such a revolution is important for party members to go back down to earth and to the basics. We cannot act as elitists as we are a parti kampung. So we must return to our roots,” he said, adding that, all members were equal, including the president.