Umno Youth will do away with elitist image: Asyraf Wajdi

KUALA LUMPUR: The Umno Youth will do away with its elitist image and will approach the people in order to rebuild their trust in the party, said its newly-elected chief Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki.
"What we will do after the executive committee is to travel to all 191 divisions, and we will sleep at the homes of the Youth branch chiefs in the villages. No longer in luxury hotels.
"We will do away with this culture and be with the youths and have discussion programmes with them. We also welcome feedback from the people, the important thing is that we have to listen to the people's voices," he told reporters.
Asyraf Wajdi made the commitment after the elections results of the three Umno wings, namely Wanita, Pemuda and Puteri which were announced by the party's executive secretary Datuk Seri Ab Rauf Yusoh tonight.
Ab Rauf also announced the Shahril Sufian Hamdan as Youth vice chief, Hafiz Che Mat (Youth permanent chairman) and Izwan Ismail (Youth vice permanent chairman) after they defeated their respective challengers in the polls.
Asyraf Wajdi said a cadre system to produce youths with leadership calibre would be Umno Youth's main agenda under the new leadership.
The former deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department said this would be achieved through training programmes, so that individuals who would lead the party in the future understood Umno's struggles and could gain the confidence of the people as an effective opposition party.
"We (Umno) want to build a 'youngsters' factory'.We do not want to have one talent only. We need more than one good leader, or (rather) more than hundreds.
"I want to build a culture of knowledge, where everyone speaks based on knowledge and facts, not based on sentiment or emotions," he said.
Asyraf won the Umno Youth chief's post for 2018-2021 term after defeating other candidates such as former Umno Youth vice president Khairul Azwan Harun, Pahang Umno Youth chief Datuk Mohd Shahar Abdullah, and Sungai Besar Umno division chief Datuk Seri Jamal Yunos. — Bernama