Datuk Mahfuz Omar
BUTTERWORTH: Leaders or members of any political party are welcome to join the National Trust Party (Amanah) to strengthen the country’s position and stability, said Vice-President Datuk Mahfuz Omar.
He said, according to the record, until August, Amanah received 12,000 applications, mostly comprising PAS members.
“We always welcome anyone, including UMNO or PAS members to join Amanah or any party in PH (Pakatan Harapan),” he told reporters after launching the Kulim Industrial Tenants Association (KITA) HR Conference here yesterday.
He said this when asked about the actions of two Umno leaders Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed and Datuk Seri Anifah Aman who resigned their posts in the party and quit Umno.
Mahfuz, who is also the Human Resources Deputy Minister, said the withdrawal of two prominent figures in Umno also gave a clear signal that PAS should stop the desire to cooperate with Umno as the people could no longer accept racial-based politics.
“This is because narrow-racial politics is now seen as irrelevant in digital times such as today when the people are more courageous in speaking up and are even cleverer than leaders which eventually cause such politics to be extinct.
“I think that ultimately racist-based politics will be extinct, people will not accept it any more,” he said.
Mahfuz said the racial nature would definitely be there since everyone loved their race, but narrow racial politics to the point of denouncing other races would no longer be acceptable.
Mustapa, who is a Jeli Member of Parliament and former International Trade and Industry Minister, announced quitting UMNO last Tuesday and less than 24 hours afterwards Anifah, who was the former Foreign Minister, announced the same move.
Meanwhile, Mahfuz in his keynote address said the ministry always encourages the management of companies to adapt and adopt the digitalisation technologies as it has become the key factor in accelerating the migration of local industries’ ecosystems to Industry 4.0.
He said that the reskilling and upskilling of existing workforce are vital in order for industries to stay relevant, as well as introductions and exposures should be in tandem to become “Digital Workforce”.
“I strongly believe that HR, as the heart of every company, is going to play a significant role in such organisational changes, in order to ensure the successful migration from the current industrial condition to the latest industrial revolution,” he said.
Kulim Industrial Tenants Association comprise 36 high technology related companies which form the major tenants and consists of four sub-committees, namely Human Resources (KITA-HR), Security (KCSC), Infrastructure (KITA-INFRA), as well as Environmental, Health and Safety (KIPEHS).
Around 200 Human Resource (HR) professionals and representatives from various industries attended the conference. — Bernama