Stop demanding loyalty from the Malays, Umno delegate tells leadership

KUALA LUMPUR: Umno should stop demanding the Malays pledge their loyalty to the party, Johor party leader Datuk Ayub Rahmat said today.
The Kemelah assemblyman said Umno should set aside the perception that the Malays should always be indebted to the party for championing their rights.
"It is not the Malays who are indebted to Umno. Umno is the one that is indebted to the Malays, It is time for Umno to stop asking the Malays to give their pledge of loyalty to Umno. It is time for Umno to stop reminiscing what it had given to the Malays," " said the Johor executive councilor debating the president's speech at t the Umno Annual General Meeting at the Putra World Trade Centre today.
Ayub said it was time for Umno to thank the Malays for the support it had given the party all this time.
"Umno will not succeed without the Malays. Not ever," he said
Ayub said that the party needed to step up its game by restructuring its offering to the Malays and revising the Malay agenda.
"We needed to offer a new narrative, offer a new agenda, offer excitement and a new hope to the Malays," he said.
Meanwhile Umno youth representative Mua'mar Ghadafi Jamal Jamaluddin said Umno should place greater importance on the younger generation heading into the next general election (GE) as youth made up half the voters on the rolls.
He said the party must not only field more youth candidates for the GE, but also bring forward new and fresh ideas that youth can relate to.
“This coming 14th GE, there will be about close to six million young voters, which make up 46.6 percent of the total. And thats a huge number.
“What this means is that there needs to be more effort to garner their trusts and votes.
“Give them a sense of new idea and belief, so that they know Umno is the one that gives them real hope, and only then will the youth choose Umno,” he told delegates.