Don’t go overboard, Annuar warns Khairy

Mohd Farhan Darwis Mohd Farhan Darwis Updated 7 years ago · Published on 16 Jul 2018 5:51PM · 5 Comments

WATCH IT, Khairy Jamaluddin, Umno secretary-general Annuar Musa said today of the Rembau MP who has been critical of the party following its defeat in the 14th general election.

The former Umno Youth chief must be careful not to go “overboard” with his statements as “no individual was bigger than the party and organisation,” Annuar said at a press conference at the party headquarters in the Putra World Trade Centre today.

Annuar said the party had made efforts to include Khairy in the leadership and to give him a role, but the former youth and sports minister had turned down the offers. Khairy holds no positions other than being the Rembau lawmaker.

“Some people say he (Khairy) has been sidelined, but the party president (Ahmad Zahid Hamidi) had wanted him to be a party official.

“Khairy was offered the post of Barisan Nasional secretary but he rejected it. The president did not give up and offered him the post of information chief…we even delayed the announcement (of the party positions) as we wanted Khairy to be a senior leader of the party,” Annuar said.

According to Annuar, the information chief post was offered to Khairy before Umno announced its Supreme Council line up last week.

Zahid had delayed the announcement to send a representative to persuade Khairy to take the post from Friday night until Saturday morning, but the latter declined.

“We have to move on… no individual is bigger than the party,” the Umno secretary-general said.

Since Barisan Nasional’s defeat in the May 9 polls, Khairy has commented on social media about the need for Umno and BN to be a credible opposition.

He was also among the loudest voices calling for change and transformation in the Umno leadership, and made a bid for the president’s post in recent party elections but lost.

Khairy earlier today criticised the walkout from the Dewan Rakyat by his opposition colleagues who protested the speaker’s appointment.

In recent weeks, he also expressed disappointment with party leaders for criticising the appointments of non-Muslims as the new attorney-general and new chief justice.

In a tweet, Khairy also said that it appeared that Umno was moving more to the right which would only see the party survive for another 10 to 15 years. He lamented that taking the middle path was something the grassroots could not understand.

On Saturday, he criticised both Umno’s appointment of former attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali as a supreme council member and Apandi’s same-day rejection of the post, calling the episode “embarrassing” and an “amateur hour”.

Annuar said Khairy should also realise that his ideas for the party’s renewal offered during his campaign for the party president’s post, had been adopted by Zahid.

“So I hope he won’t go overboard if he wants to speak up,” Annuar said. – July 16, 2018.

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Comments

  • Anuar still doesn't get it. Why would KJ want to be part of a what he (and many others) see as a rightist leadership? What he wants is to reform Umno and bring it from the right to the middle, which he views as the original and rightful place of Umno. For that, he needs to disassociate himself from the very leadership he wants to reform. It would be awkward if he keeps harping about doing things one way while he is part of a leadership that does things another way.

    Posted 7 years ago by Léon Moch · Reply

  • As though he, annuar, is whiter than white...

    Posted 7 years ago by Ali Khan · Reply

  • The next election Khairy will mass more support from the voters. Only till then Annual will see why Khairy is behaving thus.

    Posted 7 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

  • Next party elections(if UMNO still exists), KJ and his followers will rise and kick out all these fossils. Onward, bro!

    Posted 7 years ago by Adi bokharee md khalid · Reply

  • An MP is elected to represent his or her constituency thus what the MP says and vote in the Dewan is after taking into account the best interest of his or her constituency and the nation at large. This is simply because the elected MP knows the feeling and sentiment of the voters i.e. what the RAKYAT is saying. If the elected MP has to follow and toe the party line what democracy are we inheriting and practicing? Toeing the party line is an outdated and all the hue and cry that they are saying they want changes are not translated for all to see and judge.

    Posted 7 years ago by Teruna Kelana · Reply