SHAH ALAM, April 29 — Umno must get support from Malays in the cities amid increasing urbanisation, former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

The Rembau MP said he had stressed this at a recent party event, where he told attendees that Umno cannot always be a party of literal village champions (“parti jaguh kampung”).

“We cannot keep relying on winning in only rural areas. We must win in urban areas, so as to be seen as being able to compete in the cities,” he said during Karangkraf’s Bicara Minda session here.

Khairy told moderator Tan Sri Johan Jaafar that had he won the presidency during the Umno elections in July 1 last year, he would have certainly aimed to make the party more appealing to segments outside Umno’s traditional support base.

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“Remember that 50 per cent of the Malays now reside in the cities, either because their villages have become more urbanised or because they have migrated there.

“If we cannot get support from professionals and the educated, then I fear Umno has no future,” he said.

Khairy also said that although the party is centre-right oriented, it should try not to veer too much towards the right.

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“This is because when we play on race and religion, it will one day bite back at us. Sometimes we cannot control the consequences of what might happen,” he said.

Reiterating his long-standing caution over the Umno-PAS cooperation, Khairy said he nonetheless brought up this fact when he attended a Perpaduan Ummah gathering at Pendang in Kedah on Saturday.

“I told them that our cooperation must be more than just Islam and the Malays. To focus on that only means it will not work out in the end.

“We must look after everyone, be it the Chinese, the Indians, the Kadazans, as well as tackling issues related to the economy, education, good governance and integrity,” he said.

He added that being obsessed with race and religion means the political party would not be inclusive in the end.