TENGKU Razaleigh Hamzah is the the oldest candidate running for Umno’s top post, but his vision for the party is centred on the party’s younger generation.

In his meeting with Penang Umno members in Seberang Jaya today, the 81-year-old repeatedly drove home the need to invest in youth.

“We need to raise youth leaders because we will face many problems and have to help this generation. They make up almost half the nation’s population.

“Youths have to answer this challenge to be leaders. They don’t need an old man,” he said in his speech, referring to the call by some Umno leaders that he should contest for president and how he ended up answering the call.

The elder politician said he personally did not want to run for the post and felt younger leaders like former youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and Supreme Council member Reezal Merican Naina Merican should be the ones to lead.

“We veterans should just help them along the way, to continue the struggle,” he said.

Tengku Razaleigh said he consulted intellectuals, the academia, and professionals on the calls for him to run for party president, and they told him there was nothing wrong with Umno but its leadership.

“Of late, Umno has become undemocratic. There are no chances for the younger generation to be groomed as future leaders.

“They face conditions and obstacles in moving forward…Some wanted to keep Umno for their own families.

“There was grooming and training in the past for the sake of the nation. If we have that, surely there will be continuity in this struggle,” he said.

The Kelantan prince said Umno now lacked visible leaders who could take over even in the states, citing how hard it was for Umno to choose a new menteri besar for Pahang after Adnan Yaakob did not want to continue.

“We are really short of people because we did not groom them to be ready to take over the leadership in the states.

“At the national level, I am no substitute. I am old, a stopgap measure,” said the politician popularly known as Ku Li.

Tengku Razaleigh is up against four others going for the post, including acting party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Khairy.

He also said it was time to revert to the old “from the ground up” order, instead of the current “top-down” approach, to allow more participation and voices from the party grassroots, especially the younger ones.

Asked by reporters after his meeting if he had the support of the youths in the party since he is contesting against the popular Khairy, the soft-spoken Umno veteran said yes.

“I am told that I have (the support),” he said, adding that the new youth chief, Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki was also from Kelantan, his home state.

“He is not from KJ’s (Khairy’s) group. Some of those supporting me are also from KJ’s group. It is a clear sign that people want change.” – June 27, 2018.