"We Should Seriously Consider All Options" - Khairy Hints At A Multiracial UMNO
He was asked about the steps his party could take to avoid repeating its unprecedented loss during the 14th General Election.
By Jia Vern Tham — 15 May 2018, 06:24 PM
United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin recently suggested his own party to open up its membership to all Malaysians
Khairy was speaking to Channel NewsAsia (CNA) about what his party could do to avoid repeating Barisan Nasional (BN)'s defeat in the 14th General Election (GE14).
"We should seriously consider all options," he was quoted as saying by CNA, including the possibility to open its membership to all Malaysians.
"What model do we want? United Malays National Organisation or United Malaysian National Organisation?" he added, before stressing that such questions are necessary to be asked.
Prior to that, Khairy said it was time for UMNO to reexamine its structure, given that Malay votes were shifted away from the party and the BN coalition in GE14.
His statement came days after an academic stated that the idea of a multiracial UMNO was not new
A member of the National Council of Professors, Mustafa Ishak told Free Malaysia Today (FMT) that UMNO's founder, Datuk Onn Jaafar had previously envisioned his party to be multiracial.
In 1951, Onn Jaafar left the party after failing to open its membership to non-Malays.
FMT also reported Mustafa as saying that UMNO's defeat in GE14 should make the party realise that the days of race-based political parties were over.
Nonetheless, presidents of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) have declared that their parties will remain in the BN coalition
Bernama reported that the parties have agreed to bring about changes by looking into their weaknesses after the coalition's defeat in GE14.
Datuk Seri Dr. S. Subramaniam was speaking to reporters after a BN Supreme Council meeting at Menara Dato' Onn yesterday, 14 May.
Image via New Straits Times"Today, we are still part of BN," MIC president Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam was quoted as saying by Bernama.
"We feel BN needs to reform to make up to current challenges, and we will see if that reform happens... otherwise, we will be looking for (other) options," he added.
On the other hand, MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said all component parties in the coalition will have a post-mortem to identify and correct their flaws.
"BN is still intact. Those who are in BN (have) have to go through these changes together," he added.