Umno’s fiery youth leader takes on veteran member who quits party

MALAYSIA: An Umno strongman in Johor has left the party, accusing its Johor chapter of being under the influence of external forces.

But today, reports indicate that the Umno Supreme Council member Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi’s decision to leave the party stemmed from dissatisfaction over his son not being considered as a candidate in the Johor state elections,

Umno secretary general Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said Mohd Puad’s allegation that the Johor palace controlled Johor Umno and had ordered the dissolution of the State Legislative Assembly was slander.

He claimed Mohd Puad had previously threatened to criticise the party and quit Umno if the party leadership did not accede to his request.

“He wrote to me at length, threatening to quit the party and attack Umno if the party leadership did not consider his son as a candidate for the Rengit seat.

“It is true that his son is young and has considerable potential to be groomed as a future leader. However, the party must take many factors into account when selecting candidates for an election,” he said.

Meanwhile, Puad’s statement on why he left the party – that is due to external influence – caught the attention of Umno’s fiery youth leader, Dr Akmal Saleh,

Akmal emphasised that the party does not belong to “family members” following allegations of dissatisfaction regarding the selection of candidates.

He said that the allegation by Puad that Umno Johor no longer fulfils the aspirations of the youth is baseless, as many young candidates have been put forward in the Johor State Election (PRN) this time.

“Umno is not a family party. When a child does not become a candidate, everything about Umno is said to be wrong.

There are many other young people who exist and have been chosen as candidates.

Just because someone’s child is not chosen as a candidate does not mean this party no longer has aspirations for the youth,” he said in a video shared on Facebook today.

Commenting further on the allegations made against the royal institution in relation to the candidate selection process as a serious accusation, Akmal said that Umno Youth will lodge a police report to enable the authorities to carry out an investigation.

“The allegations made against the royal institution are a very serious matter.

We want this matter to be investigated and if the allegation is not true, appropriate action must be taken,” he said.