KUALA LUMPUR, June 23 — Umno presidential candidate Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today said that he would like to see his rival Khairy Jamaluddin try to open up Umno to non-Malays.
However, he reminded the outgoing Umno Youth chief of the fate that befell one of Umno’s former presidents, Datuk Onn Jaafar, who had attempted the move in his tenure.
“I respect his stand. He may do it if he is elected as the new president of Umno, and I would like to see whether he can translate it into action or not.
“Because Datuk Onn Jaafar has tried to open the membership of Umno to non-Malays and what happened to him? History has told us about it,” the Bagan Dato Umno leader told a press conference at his party headquarters here.
Onn Jaafar had in 1951 proposed the idea to make Umno a multi-racial party, but the suggestions was not well received by the wider members of the party.
This resulted in Onn leaving the party to set up the Independence of Malaya Party (IMP) later that year.
In an interview with Channel NewsAsia, Khairy had previously suggested as the non-Malay Umno membership as an option in revamping the Malay nationalist party’s structure.
His idea was also welcomed by outgoing Supreme Council member Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz.
