KUALA LUMPUR: Flexible politics, practised by Umno since its establishment 70 years ago had proved that the Malay majority party is actually an inclusive party that has brought a lot of benefits to multi-racial Malaysia.
The benefits cut across various sectors such as the economy, education and social, according to a general view of the party’s members and academicians.
All of them met by Bernama were of the opinion that the power-sharing adopted by Umno as the backbone to the Barisan Nasional (BN) government, had observed that weaker component parties were given positions accordingly in the Cabinet.
On Tuesday night, Umno vice-president who performs the duties of deputy president, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi when simultaneously launching the general meetings of Umno wings had stressed that the party also looked after the non-Malays on the principle of ‘One nation one roof’.
The statement had thus rejected accusations by the opposition who frequently alleged that Umno was a racist party and only fought for the rights and interest of the Malays in the country.
A delegate who is also Masjid Tanah Umno Puteri Information chief Siti Faidul Maisarah Abdullah said, the party’s contribution towards the success of the country today, had to be looked upon in a broader context.
“We are not a party that only looks after one race. Look, we have various streams of school and the government policies and aids were not only given to the Malays,” she told Bernama.
Another delegate, who is also Kuala Langat Umno Wanita chief, Rozana Kamarulzaman said, Ahmad Zahid’s statement was also a clear signal to the opposition and people in general on the party’s struggles.
While an observer who is also Balik Pulau Umno Youth Information chief, Zambri Mohd Isa said, other than the Malays, Umno had contributed a lot to other races via policies carried out by the BN government.
“The nation’s prosperity is enjoyed by all races. There was no race that was left out,” he said.
Meanwhile, Assoc Prof Mohd Izani Mohd Zain of the Faculty of Human Ecology, Universiti Putra Malaysia said, Umno was the earliest one that had ventured into cooperation with other parties such as MCA and MIC in the Alliance, before the cooperation expanded into BN in 1974.
“This clearly had shown that Umno had practiced flexible politics as stated by Ahmad Zahid. Umno is the core party in Perikatan and BN was the one that promotes the power-sharing.
“This was admitted by the opposition themselves to the extent that they believed, in order to defeat BN in the election, they also need to cooperate,” he said.
Mohd Izani said, the model that the opposition tried to apply using Umno and BN’s mould, was indeed a failure to them as they did not have a solid cooperation formula like BN had. — Bernama