KUALA LUMPUR: Incoming PKR deputy-president Rafizi Ramli described Umno leaders as lacking in ideas on how to govern the country, until they were afraid of the formula he had put forward to address the cost-of-living issue.
He claimed Umno's leadership was confused on how to manage the issue and that their 'greatest' idea was to set up a National Poultry Board to address the crisis.
"Each time I say something, the only response coming from Umno leadership is that I only know how to present formulas. They give examples of how these formulas cannot be implemented when Pakatan Harapan (PH) was in power for 22 months.
"Their reasoning was that there are loopholes. They are so scared of my formula that their leaders speak simultaneously each time I come up with an idea to resolve a problem.
"This means they admit (in silence) that they are barren of ideas on to govern the country.
"They are worried that if Malaysian politics revolves around ideas (and not racial, religious or who is in power), they will be rejected by the people as happened in the 14th General Election (GE14)," he said in a statement today.
Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi yesterday said the people do not need a 'formula king', instead what they needed was to address the cost of living and national food security issue.
The Bagan Datuk Member of Parliament (MP) also slammed Rafizi's remarks, belittling Umno's proposal to set up the National Poultry Board and also proposed the government move to implement a buffer stock policy to address the food security crisis.
Commenting further, the former Pandan MP said Zahid's statement did not explain his objection on the establishment of the board which could only lead to increased bureaucracy and a waste of the people's money.
"The statement also contradicted remarks made by newly appointed Umno Supreme Working Council (MKT) member, Isham Jalil, who said that the current Umno-led government has already implemented a buffer stock policy by importing chicken over the past few weeks.
"The Umno president said my idea (for the government to build a buffer stock) was just a formula that could not be implemented, but his newly appointed senior MKT member (who is said to be the smartest in Umno) said the idea was already used by Umno," he said.
Therefore, Rafizi said he would continue to put forward a formula for the people to consider every two to three days so that Malaysia's political competition was a competition of ideas.
"I advise Ahmad Zahid and Umno to find another answer to confront me because the answer 'Umno has a non-formula solution' was rejected by the people in GE14," he said.