GE15: UMNO to ensure no big-headed candidates selected - Ahmad Zahid

KUALA LUMPUR: UMNO will ensure that the candidates selected to contest the 15th General Election (GE15) are leaders with high discipline, not big-headed, and are brave in defending the party from being disparaged.

Its president, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, said that UMNO's Top Five leaders will choose candidates who do not voice dissent against their leaders, apart from having strong grassroots support regardless of where they are contesting.

"Now UMNO needs to have internal stability to ensure that there will not be dissenting voices criticising the party after the general election. This means that the selection of UMNO candidates for this election is very important.

"This task is very challenging for the Top Five leaders, but crucial for future political stability, harmony, and discipline of the party. This time UMNO is very serious about ensuring the candidates possess noble UMNO soul and spirit," he said in a post on Facebook, today.

Ahmad Zahid said UMNO wanted the individuals chosen as candidates to really put priority on the struggle of the party and Barisan Nasional (BN), rather than the individual's struggles above the party.

"Any big-headed person who thinks he is bigger than the party's struggle should know his place.

"There are those who, when the Parliament was dissolved, realised that they actually belonged to the party; everything they enjoyed, including the positions they had held, because they were basically members of UMNO, not members or representing the voice of Bersatu or PAS or any other political parties," he said.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Zahid, who is also the BN chairman, admitted that BN has learned several things from the defeat in 2018, with the main one being awareness of the meaning of loyalty to the party.

"That's when BN was tested, when many UMNO leaders ran to save themselves. Some hopped to other parties, some became party traitors, and some even distanced themselves from UMNO. This is painful but also a lesson for UMNO.

"The internal cleansing of UMNO happens automatically when these opportunists are identified, through their attitudes, statements and behaviour," he said, adding that it can at least be an important direction in the context of BN candidate selection.

-- BERNAMA