KUALA LUMPUR: Umno will not make any inroads in capturing the heart of voters if it fails to come out with a ‘new deal’ which could convince voters, especially the younger generation, to back its intention to recapture Putrajaya.
Otherwise the 73-year-old party which lost power in the 14th General Election last year, may find itself in the opposition benches, said Umno Youth information chief Mohd Shahar Abdullah.
He also said the party had yet to garner sufficient support from younger voters who make up 67.1 per cent of the nation’s total population.
“(The support from) the youth has yet to return to us. They are now evaluating the strength of the party.
“Having said that, Umno must be prepared to continue being an opposition party, if we fail to come out with a new deal that could win support from youths.
“If they are not convinced with our effort, Umno would continue to be an opposition party,” said Shahar.
The Paya Besar MP said this in an interview with the Melaka Umno media unit here today.
He said the biggest challenge faced by Umno was not in regards to strengthening unity among party members but in regards to an understanding of the actual aspiration of the people.
“We must go down to the ground and understand what the people want. Umno should also stop engaging in rhetoric like what it did previously.
“They (people) do not want the old Umno. The people will only support the new Umno,” he said.
During the interview, which was published on Umno online Facebook account, Shahar also took a swipe at Pakatan Harapan MPs over their poor attendance in Parliament recently.
“We were the government for 61 years but we rarely made statements which made us sound stupid.
“This is not a joke. As a leader, every word that you utter, should be done so with responsibility.
“They (government MPs) said they were cold (which resulted in their poor attendance in Dewan Rakyat). Out there, the people are also cold, hoping they provide better assistance compared to (the previous) Barisan Nasional (administration).
“Truth be told, like the Malay saying: ‘Indah khabar dari rupa’ (looks nice only from the outside).”
It was reported that Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohamed Hanipa Maidin blamed the temperature inside the House for the poor attendance of government beckbenchers.
He had said that it was not easy for MPs to stay inside the Dewan Rakyat for proceedings because it could be “too cold”.