KUALA LUMPUR: The 73rd Umno general assembly witnessed for the first time the attendance of PAS President Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, following the signing of the National Consensus Charter or Muafakat Nasional by the two political parties who were once political rivals.
The charter was inked on Sept 14, which highlighted political co-operation among the two largest Malay Muslim-based parties in the country
Abdul Hadi’s visit to the assembly was a gesture of appreciation to Umno President Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and other Umno leaders who attended the PAS Muktamar in Kuala Terengganu last year in September.
The Marang member of Parliament was given the honour of sitting on the stage with other Umno leaders and Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders, namely MCA President Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong and MIC President Tan Sri S.A Vigneswaran, during the official opening of the assembly.
Present with Abdul Hadi were 30 PAS central committee members and leaders of PAS Youth, PAS Muslimat and PAS Ulama
During last year’s Umno general assembly, the first assembly where Umno was the opposition, Abdul Hadi was represented by his deputy Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man.
Meanwhile in his speech, Zahid said Umno would amend the party’s constitution involving the position of the Wanita Umno wing, and membership of allied members. Umno Sabah will be granted full autonomy to ensure the party’s survival.
Zahid stressed that even though the party was currently facing various challenges and obstacles, the revision of the constitution will still be done and will be tabled by the Constitution Amendment Committee Chairman Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin.
Among others, the amendment would drop the word “Pergerakan” from Wanita Umno, thus raising its status with the Deputy President, instead of the current vice-president status.
It will also touch on giving full autonomy to Umno Sabah in electing the state’s main posts as well as election candidates.
Earlier the party’s secretary-general Tan Sri Annuar Musa reported to the assembly that 6% or about 216,000 Umno members out of its total 3.6 million members have been omitted through its cleaning up process after being detected of not being loyal.
He said the cleaning up involved almost 10% of its members with 2% of them having become members of other parties, and 4% of members who were not loyal and members who had passed away.
Umno had carried out its cleaning up process from October 2018 until last February.
“After going through various processes including cleaning up, it was reported until yesterday (Dec 5) that the total number of Umno members now id 3,292,667, while the number of Umno branches is 22,156,“ he said.
The 2019 Umno general assembly will run for four days until today with 5,603 delegates. — Bernama
