Khairy blames 1MDB for Umno’s downfall

Updated 5 years ago · Published on 4 Jun 2018 7:11PM · 11 Comments

Khairy Jamaluddin admits that there was collective failure to confront Najib Razak over his role in the multi-billion-ringgit financial scandal in 1MDB. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, June 4, 2018.

ALL roads of Umno’s downfall in the 14th general election lead back to the party’s decision not to confront former party president Najib Razak over the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.

Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin said the collective failure of party leaders and government ministers to demand answers over the multi-billion-ringgit financial scandal led to Umno and Barisan Nasional’s “catastrophic” defeat in last month’s polls.

“We perhaps missed an opportunity, all of us, to convey the truth of the gravity of the situation,” Khairy told The South China Morning Post.

Former prime minister Najib is now facing criminal investigations over his role in what several countries call one of the worst cases of embezzlement from a state fund.

Najib has denied any wrongdoing.

Khairy, 42, said the party should have acted when Najib, who was also finance minister, sacked ministers who publicly challenged him over the 1MDB scandal in 2015.

“All of us stopped or did not convey what we felt were sentiments on the ground and what we felt were the true concerns of the voters,” he said.

“At some point there was a line drawn, that’s it, no further questions, no more discussions about this (1MDB) and that was that,” Khairy said.

“After a while, we just went with it and look at where we have ended up.”

American prosecutors say around US$4.5 billion was siphoned off from 1MDB, while US$700 million found its way into Najib’s bank account.

Khairy said his post-election critique of the party and BN were not meant to be an attempt to distance himself from Najib or Umno.

“I am pointing the finger at ourselves. We stopped asking, we stopped probing, we stopped challenging,” Khairy said.

Despite calls by some younger party leaders and even those within the Pakatan Harapan leadership for Khairy to run for president in the party elections, he said he will not contest the leadership of the country’s largest political party of three million members.

Khairy said he would run to be one of three vice-presidents, but would leave the presidency and deputy presidency to be filled by leaders with “wiser heads and broader shoulders than mine”.

 “We are running for posts in a party that just lost catastrophically, the burden that the new leaders of the party will have to bear is tremendous so I don’t think that there is (going to be a) clamouring for positions that you normally associate with past party elections,” he told SCMP.

Khairy has said the party must be prepared to transform itself if it hopes to remain relevant in the new Malaysian political landscape.

One option being considered is the opening up of party membership to all ethnicities, a proposal that has been dismissed by most party veterans.

 “It is something that is quite appealing to people outside the party and younger people in the party.”

Asked about his biggest fear for Umno, Khairy was quoted as saying: “The fear of change (and) a resistance to reform is my greatest fear in my party”. – June 4, 2018.

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Comments

  • People talked about 1MDB for 3 years, and UMNO kept quiet about the issue for the same amount of time. Why so stupid to let this happen?

    Posted 5 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

  • WHAT A BIG DISSAPOINTMENT. Mahathir was wrong EVEN KJ is not qualified to lead UMNO to reform. NO ONE CAN LEAD UMNO TO REFORM..

    UMNO downfall was happening for 20 years. 1MDB was just the last straw that quickened it. Looks like even KJ cannot face the truth. No one in UMNO can.

    Posted 5 years ago by Bigjoe Lam · Reply

  • For the first time after the election, an Umno member managed to put his finger on the one of the main issue that caused Umno downfall. But you fall short of saying that you n the rest not only did not question Najib, you all also defended him tooth n nail. In short, you all were in complicit with his action. From the way Umno deal with 1MDB, the rakyat can see the govt institutions has failed miserably because a thief right before their eyes no one can even catch, but they can catch all who raised the 1MDB issue with the allegation of bringing down an elected govt. Umno owed the rakyat an apology. If you are serious in winning the rakyat's heart, the first step is to apologize to the rakyat of your failure to protect the interest of the rakyat. Instead, you all protected your own interest n position. Nothing short of an apology first will ever convince the rakyat that Umno is ready for a reform. As long as you all remain arrogant, you can attack the present PH govt all you want, like Wee Ka Siong is doing, the rakyat will not even gove you any hoot. Because when they need you the most, you have proven yourselves unreliable n arrogant. Enough said.

    Posted 5 years ago by Peace Maker · Reply

  • For the first time after the election, an Umno member managed to put his finger on the one of the main issue that caused Umno downfall. But you fall short of saying that you n the rest not only did not question Najib, you all also defended him tooth n nail. In short, you all were in complicit with his action. From the way Umno deal with 1MDB, the rakyat can see the govt institutions has failed miserably because a thief right before their eyes no one can even catch, but they can catch all who raised the 1MDB issue with the allegation of bringing down an elected govt. Umno owed the rakyat an apology. If you are serious in winning the rakyat's heart, the first step is to apologize to the rakyat of your failure to protect the interest of the rakyat. Instead, you all protected your own interest n position. Nothing short of an apology first will ever convince the rakyat that Umno is ready for a reform. As long as you all remain arrogant, you can attack the present PH govt all you want, like Wee Ka Siong is doing, the rakyat will not even gove you any hoot. Because when they need you the most, you have proven yourselves unreliable n arrogant. Enough said.

    Posted 5 years ago by Peace Maker · Reply

  • Billions in USD and RM can shut a lot of mouths ...... even those who dared to speak up did not do so voluntarily (at least at the beginning) but instigated by you-know-who.

    Posted 5 years ago by Malaysian First · Reply

  • How about UMNO as a party publicly offer an apology to the rakyats of Malaysia for being complicit in 1MDB debacle. Accept the responsibility and ask for forgiveness and then move on! The same goes to all former ministers for being so blind and deaf and demonstrated no courage to find the truth when outsiders are screaming their ears out with evidences and all but it was them who chose to not see nor hear any of it. Were they not ashame? or does it have a place in UMNO's schema??

    Posted 5 years ago by Anak Kelantan · Reply

  • Too late to regret. You have no spine to stand up when it mattered. No point crying over spilled milk. Give more thought to your future strategy. We want UMNO to be responsible opposition to keep PH on their toes.

    Posted 5 years ago by Saham san · Reply

  • KJ -- you are farting again. The mere fact of you being vocal is to make a stand for yourself to be in the top rung of your defunct party. The irony of it is that after being sober from many days of stupor disbelieve that your untouchable Umno is almost being dumped into the cess pit suddenly you realized that you are still far from having the clout to make a challenge on the open contest for the top post. Behaving and reliving back to the old Umno cultures that there should not be any open contest for the President and also the Deputy President is only self ridiculing and just all hot air blowing as it will be restating that Umno will never change. In fact Malaysia needs a strong opposition to enhance a two party system. It is to the benefits of the rakyat and the country for such a system if there is a new and reformed U.M.N.O (or what you term as United Malaysian National Organisation ) who shall provide a strong competition and a very astute check and balance to spurs a concrete developement in the parliamentary system all for a greater good of Malaysia.......... BUT......... you are a let down and will always be as you are just plain ...............................hmm.......

    Posted 5 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply

  • can you lead since you did not probe or question the issues of concern which was thrown at your face?

    Posted 5 years ago by Satkunabalan Sabaratnam · Reply

  • What I feel as a citizen of Malaysia - all i know was after GST implementation, i need to pay almost 20% to 30% increase of my daily expenditure at least, bank saving were only withdraw and empty daily, never had any saving for the past few year and self debt building more and more, this is the major factor of why UMNO failed, I don't really bother much when your gain we gain, however when ONLY your gain, we SUFFER, what you say or give also is too late. Beside what you give is only happen on the past say, 6 month, when you can actually make changes earlier. UMNO been testing our patience. Just that we did not go overboard despite of fear. Fear of speech, fear of act, fear of basically everything when the previous government lead.

    Posted 5 years ago by Symonne Belle · Reply

  • Oh really, Khairy? Did you mention that to the ex-PM, when you made that infamous pre-GE clip with him, sitting at the teh tarik stall? Let's see now, what or who were you blaming instead??

    Posted 5 years ago by Rock Hensem · Reply