KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 — Khairy Jamaluddin wants another go at the Umno presidency in 2021, but has said he may have rethink his political future should the party stop moving towards becoming more moderate and centrist.
Speaking to radio station BFM 89.9, the former Umno Youth chief said leaving the party would be the final option.
“My mission right now is to save my party and I desperately want to do so. I would like to have another bite to the cherry (presidency) in another three years and this time to win.
“But that depends on whether Umno can stay as the party when I first joined, the centrist and moderate Malay party.
“But if it continues to morph into something unrecognisable, it will force many of us, not just myself, to rethink our future. I hope it doesn’t get to that because I don't want to go there. Umno is my house,” he told the radio station this morning.
Ahead of the Umno General Assembly on Saturday and Sunday, which will be its first after the May general election and as an Opposition party, the Rembau MP said the event will be crucial in determining the direction of Umno’s future.
He said the current position held by the party’s leaders is being pulled to the right of ethnocentric issues, which he said he does not subscribe to.
“The Umno I joined is the Umno of Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Abdul Razak, a centrist and progressive party.
“I have been very clear of my immediate future plans in politics, which is to ensure Umno and Barisan Nasional as an Opposition presents itself as an effective check and balance in the present Pakatan Harapan government,” he said.
In the Umno election on June 30, former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, 65, won the Umno presidency post for the 2018-2021 term, after getting 99 out of the 191 divisional votes.
Khairy came in second with 61 votes, while Umno veteran Tan Sri Tengku Razaleigh received 30 votes.
