Umno must shake off ‘corrupt party’ label to rise again, says Isham

KUALA LUMPUR: Umno needs to make efforts to shake off the “corrupt party” label given to it by certain quarters if it wants to recover from its poor showing in the 15th General Election (GE15), says Isham Jalil.

The Umno information chief said in its 60 years as a dominant party, Umno was frequently attacked by its opponents using the corruption issue to the extent that it had created a bad impression on the party.

"Regardless of their ideology, our people do not like corruption and love a clean party. So moving forward, we (Umno) need to settle this matter first if we want to get rid of this stigma of being labelled a corrupt party,” he said at a dialogue with the media here.

According to Isham, "good people” should participate in politics as part of efforts to rid Malaysia of corrupt practices.

If the political scene was dominated by "bad people”, Malaysia risked running into all sorts of problems because national policies would then be determined by individuals who indulged in these despicable acts, he said.

Isham also said Umno would never amend its constitution to provide for no contests in the posts of party president and deputy president in party polls.

He said this matter was never raised in the party but certain quarters were making up this issue to divide Umno.

On the Umno general assembly next week, Isham said several matters would be discussed at the annual gathering, including Umno’s defeat in GE15, cooperation in the unity government and the coming party election.

"We will discuss the Umno polls in this critical time of unfavourable economic conditions and the risk of the government changing again. And if Umno is unstable, many things will happen.

"If the government is toppled, there will be political instability again and investors will not come. That is why I say this Umno elections will have effects not only on Umno but also the whole country, and will determine what will happen to this country,” he added.

The 2022 Umno general assembly was earlier scheduled for Dec 21 to 24 but has been postponed to Jan 11 to 14, 2023. - Bernama