Opponents use me as their 'centre of gravity' – Zahid

 

Opponents use me as their 'centre of gravity' – Zahid


Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the party’s opponents have shifted to targeting him as the “centre of gravity” of their strategy.

This was akin to Umno’s opponents using the “fourth-floor boys” during Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s time as prime minister and later, 1MDB during Najib Abdul Razak’s administration as their targets, he added.

“Clearly from the last few by-elections, we managed to succeed even though in the state elections, we did not because our political opponents used the 3R (religion, royalty and race) issues.

“They purposely destroyed my image because the method of destroying the organisation, smearing and slandering the top leaders is their strategy.

“They do it to the ‘centre of gravity’. During Pak Lah (Abdullah), they used the ‘fourth-floor boys’ as the target, and then the centre of gravity shifted to Najib and he was smeared with the 1MDB case and other things.

“Now that I have taken over the leadership of Umno amid troubled times, of course, the ‘centre of gravity’ has shifted to me,” Zahid said as reported by Berita Harian today.

“Umno’s opponents are using the religion and Malay people against us because they want to take over the party’s role and leaders who got kicked out formed other parties because they want to destroy Umno,” he added.

Zahid acknowledged there are splits within Umno but said this was nothing new in political parties.

While he will not cater to those who have different opinions from the rest of the party leadership, Zahid stressed that he would respect their views.

“They used write open letters but now the world is different and we cannot block. Now, we have to act fast to answer questions and issues.

“If we do not do so after three days, then the perception has stuck in the minds of the rakyat. This is what we failed to do at one time,” he said.


‘They failed too’

Recalling Umno’s internal troubles and external attacks over the past few years, Zahid said there were too many betrayals at the time.

“Even now, there are still some within Umno who are angry at the party, but only because they failed to fracture the party and did not become candidates in the last general election.

“I did not take action before this, they are traitors to the party after the election four years ago and now they are in another party and using external elements to break up the party.

“I accept the reality that we failed and only have 26 MPs but we have to see that they (former Umno leaders who joined other parties) have also failed,” said the deputy prime minister.