KUALA LUMPUR: A delegate from the Moscow Overseas Umno Club, Nur Farhana Mohd Anuar, stole the attention of delegates at the 2014 Umno general assembly, especially Umno permanent chairman Tan Sri Badruddin Amiruldin with her witty speech.
She was debating the motion on the Umno presidential speech, which now entered its second day, at the Putra World Trade Centre.
Now, a fifth year student at the First Moscow State Medical University, Russia, Nur Farhana seemed to be at ease with the Russian language as
she often imported Russian words into her speech, prompting Badrudin to occasionally remind her to speak in the Malay language.
Delegates sometimes broke into laughter when Badruddin repeated the Russian words for Nur Farhana to explain the meaning – because the words sounded funny.
In her 15-minute speech, Nur Farhana said, among others, that Umno could not be
proud in having 3.47 million members as it did not necessarily mean that they were all “Umno people”.
“As Umno members, they should be ‘Umno people’ who fight for the race, religion and the country,” she added.
She also said programmes organised by Umno were “syok sendiri” (self-indulgent), stereotype, not young people-friendly and not strategic because they were organised merely to meet the yearly requirement.
“Many young under-graduates have the perception that Umno has no fresh and new ideas, the party struggle is also becoming blur,” she added.
Badruddin, who was impressed with Nur Farhana’s speech, praised her, saying that she was courteous and wanted other speakers to emulate her.
“(Nur Farhana) is good. It is not a waste to have her come here. Although she is studying in Russia, she speaks fluent Malay.
“That is the struggle and people like her are our future leaders,” said Badruddin, accompanied by a loud applause from delegates at the assembly.
Later, when met by Bernama, Nur Farhana said Umno should organise programmes which were interactive in nature, as well as used the social media, to bring the young people closer to the people.
This, she said, was in line with the aspect of hyperconnectivity which was being promoted by Umno.
She also suggested that the government and Umno’s websites be made more accessible to the public using handphones. — Bernama