KUALA LUMPUR: Umno members need to focus on restoring people's faith in the party instead of replacing their top two leaders, Johor Umno deputy chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said.
He cautioned members against being "duped" by some of the party's members of parliament who had allegedly conspired with rivals against Umno and contesting for the top two posts would only create divisions.
Nur Jazlan suggested that one of the said MP was known to have initiated efforts to elevate himself to become either the party president of the deputy president of since before the 15th general election (GE15).
"Once again, I like to stress that the positions of party president and deputy president are not to be contested for the sake of strengthening the party, unity and towards efforts to restore support for Umno.
"I want to remind Umno members not to be fooled by some MPs from the party who had won (elections) under Umno's (BN) ticket. Some had jumped and even worse, betrayed the party by colluding by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin previously," he said in a statement here today.
Nur Jazlan said having as the deputy prime minister who also held the ministeria portfolio of Rural and Regional Development.
The 2022 Umno general assembly would be held from Jan 11 to 14. It was postponed from the earlier scheduled Dec 21 to 24 this year.
So far, the date for the Umno party election has yet to be announced.
Last week, Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was reported to have said the decision to contest for the top two posts should be left to the delegates.
In the meantime, Nur Jazlan also wanted to know who were the candidates gunning for the top two posts in the party.
"If we desire contests and we want to choose, who then will be the new president, deputy president?
"We want to expect the cowards who were the first to run after Umno lost in GE14 or we want to rely on the person who failed to become the Ninth Prime Minister, or we want leave the fate of the party to people who are busy brokering Umno's dignity to the opposition?
"Umno wants to elect an individual who is anxious to replace the president when he gave a speech on the GE15 campaign stage but he ended up losing in a liberal state.
"He was already rejected in his own state, then he was given the chance to contest in another state. He is said to be quite popular.
He said in the 70 years history of Umno only four contests were made for the presidency.
The first was Tunku Abdul Rahman's fight against Ahmad Fuad Hassan (1951) followed by in Tun Hussien Onn against Sulaiman Palestine (1978) and Dr Mahathir against Tengku Razaleigh Tengku Mohd Hamzah in 1987.
The last contest in 2018 saw Zahid facing a four-cornered fight, Tengku Razaleigh and Khairy Jamaluddin were among his opponents.
"We can see that every time there is a contest for the position of president, there is definitely a split in the party. Umno has been divided many times and that had led to the establishment of Pas, Semangat 46, PKR and Bersatu."
