The Registrar of Societies’ (RoS) move to force Umno to have nationwide party elections amid the worsening Covid-19 situation smacks of politics, a party leader said today.
Speaking to FMT, Umno information chief Shahril Hamdan said this was especially so when the party fulfilled procedures for the extension of polls as indicated in the RoS’ letter to the party on July 19. “Our secretary-general will write a formal letter to RoS to explain this,” he said.
Shahril added that RoS’ latest instructions were “peculiar” considering that the government body did not even allow PKR to hold its congress in June. “Now, they want Umno to immediately hold nationwide polls across 20,000 branches?
Other parties’ requests to postpone party polls were granted without any drama. Why not Umno’s?” He said forcing Umno to carry out virtual voting without concerns for fraud and hacking was disingenuous.
The Lame Duck PM certainly lacks subtlety as he sets about his harassment and bullying to stay in power, this just being one example.
Yet he has sought to claim that his style of government, which prioritises his survival as a leader without followers above all other concerns, is the best option in this pandemic.
Thus you have a prime minister who seeks to gain emergency powers to postpone an election in Sarawak on the grounds of Covid and to postpone the sitting of Parliament on the grounds of Covid, but who has sought to reverse an agreed postponement of a rival party’s internal elections purely to badger and harass.
The UMNO decision was made in line with protocol, as accepted by the ROC in July. A call from Mahiaddin hatchet man, Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin has arm-twisted the ROC into changing its mind two months later for obvious political reasons.
Is this really the best sort of government that Malaysia needs at this time of crisis or would not just about any other government be an improvement?
As the Rulers have said a stable government, not one obsessed with its lack of legitimacy is what is needed.