An Umno leader has hit back at former Selangor menteri besar Khir Toyo after he accused his former party of losing all ambition to lead the government.
Umno Supreme Council member Puad Zarkashi said Khir appeared to be out of touch with current political realities, especially when it comes to having a dominant party in government.
Puad said political dominance needed to be redefined within the context of power-sharing, which he said was a common occurrence worldwide.
“Being dominant doesn’t necessarily mean that Umno must contest more seats and win a two-thirds majority. In the context of power-sharing, we must be dominant in championing the people’s agenda, having high-performing ministers, and upholding consistent principles.
“Dominance doesn’t just mean having greater numbers,” he said in a Facebook post.
Puad said sharing power at the federal level while governing Johor, Melaka, Perak and Pahang already gave Umno a good start towards becoming dominant again.
“It’s not impossible to regain our past dominance. Umno is leading the Perak and Pahang state governments despite having fewer seats, so it wouldn’t be impossible for this to happen in Selangor as well.
“So Khir’s excuse (that Umno has lost its ambition) for him to join Bersatu is far from the reality of today’s new politics. He is no longer relevant and brings no added value to Bersatu.”
Earlier today, Khir said Umno had become merely a supplementary party, lacking the ambition to return to power, both at the federal level and in Selangor.
The former Umno leader, who recently joined Bersatu, said Umno must be the main party in power if it wanted to help the Malays.
Khir was Selangor menteri besar from 2000 to 2008, when the Pakatan Rakyat ousted his state administration at the polls. Since then, the Selangor government has been led by PKR.
Puad said Umno has lost nothing from Khir’s departure, adding that it was his “broom legacy” that led to the party losing power in Selangor in 2008.
He was referring to when Khir, as menteri besar in 2007, had given the humiliating “award” of brooms to officers of local councils that were deemed to have underperformed in various areas.
“Umno grassroots, civil servants, the Malays and Malaysians at large won’t forget Khir’s ‘broom legacy’. It was the reason why Umno fell out of power in Selangor till this day.
“Now he wants to talk about regaining dominance, especially in Selangor,” he said, claiming that Khir left Umno because he was not fielded in the 2022 general election.
