KUALA LUMPUR, June 18 — Umno lost federal power because it did not learn from repeated losses in Selangor, former Selangor Mentri Besar Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo said today as he announced his candidacy for supreme council in the upcoming Umno election.
Dr Khir, who was previously jailed for corruption, asked his fellow party members not to help him make a comeback, but to prove that Umno was still needed to build a better country and that the Malays still wanted the Malay nationalist party.
“We are not a race that seeks pity from other races, our party is not a party that lives to be made fun of.
“Malays are not a race that lives because of other people’s sympathy. Come friends, let us rise up from our wound with confidence to fix our mistakes,” Dr Khir said in a Facebook post today.
He said Umno’s defeat in the 14th general election was because Umno’s leadership was too stubborn to learn from its repeated losses in Selangor.
“I had written a letter and even gone to see this leader in person but my suggestions were ignored.
“What is even funnier was that he believed Selangor would fall to Barisan Nasional (BN) again while achieving 2/3 majority,” he added, without naming the leader mentioned.
BN first lost Selangor in 2008. In the May general election this year, Umno only won four seats in the 56-seat state assembly in the country’s richest state, while 51 seats went to Pakatan Harapan (PH), which also formed Malaysia’s first alternative federal government.
Dr Khir said he refuted the said Umno leader’s opinion because he noted public disgust with the goods and the services tax (GST) and the scandal surrounding state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
He also highlighted vulgar politics and the refusal to strengthen the party membership as among the factors behind Malays’ loss of confidence in Umno.
“My friends, I have learned much from the fall of Selangor and I have even been insulted by my own party leadership.
“However I do not care if I am insulted, except that I regret their decision to reject the fact that Umno has been rejected by the people and now by young Malays themselves,” he said.
Dr Khir was ordered to serve 12 months in jail after losing his final appeal at the Federal Court in 2015 to set aside his corruption conviction of using his position to obtain land and a bungalow unit in Shah Alam.
The former Sungai Panjang assemblyman was released from prison when he was granted parole after serving six months.
