JOHOR BARU, Aug 25 — Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today admitted that the rejection of the party by its own members and also the Malay community will have an impact on the Malay nationalist party.
He said that this was due to the political alliance between Umno and DAP, which in the past were previously hostile to each other.
“It has come to the point that some members have labelled the present relationship as UMDAP and the reality is that the term affected them.
“In this regard, Barisan Nasional (BN) needs to work hard to convince party members and the grassroots that the cooperation between Umno and Pakatan Harapan (PH) is a positive move and should not be a cause for concern.
“Such a rejection (by Umno members and the Malay community) had definitely affected the party a bit, but after several explanations, it has been well received,” Ahmad Zahid told reporters after opening a youth programme at B5 Street Market in Tampoi here today.
Present at the event were Rural and Regional Development Deputy Minister Datuk Rubiah Awang and Johor state secretary Tan Sri Azmi Rohani, who is the South-east Johor Development Board (Kejora) chairman.
Yesterday, Ahmad Zahid was reported to have said that BN had done a post-mortem on the heavy defeat in the recently concluded six state elections.
The deputy prime minister called on all members to look ahead and move forward, adding that he will also go down to all 191 divisions nationwide in an effort to meet the party’s grassroots leaders.
On the unity coalition inter-party relationships, Ahmad Zahid said any collaboration with PH or DAP should not be seen as something new as Umno had also previously collaborated with Parti Gerakan (Gerakan) in the past.
He pointed out that Gerakan at that time was in the Opposition and the party controlled Penang at that time.
“This is not a new thing for BN, we have worked with Gerakan at one point in the past which was the opposition that controlled the Penang government at that time,” he said.
