UMNO needs to hold its general assembly as soon as possible, said former Malacca chief minister Ali Rustam. 

“The Umno leadership needs to do this quickly,” said Ali, who was Umno vice-president in 2004-2009. 

The veteran politician, who lost the Hang Tuah Jaya federal seat to PKR’s Shamsul Iskandar, was responding to calls from several state Umno Youth chiefs calling for president Najib Razak to resign. 

Ali declined to add his voice to the chorus, saying “all voices must be heard at the general assembly”. 

Umno is late holding its party elections after postponing them twice. It last held party elections in 2013. 

To reinvigorate Umno, Ali said the party must recruit more young professionals. 

The 69-year-old said BN had underestimated the impact of GST on its popularity.

“Other than in Singapore, all other governments that had introduced the GST also fell,” said Ali, at Umno’s 72nd anniversary celebration at PWTC tonight. 

“But we really believed that it was a fairer taxation system that what we had.” – May 11, 2018.