Zahid says leaders who leave party's struggles lack resilience, patience

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi describes former UMNO or Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders who are frustrated and leave the party as leaders who lack resilience and patience.

Ahmad Zahid said such leaders, whether at the national or Sabah state level, lacked the resilience and patience and eventually made a wrong decision because they were then angry, depressed and frustrated.

"Alhamdulillah (praise be to Allah), we in UMNO and we in BN, despite being pressured, despite being ''kicked'' (with various allegations and slanders), we remain patient in UMNO and BN,"he said.

Ahmad Zahid, who is also UMNO vice-president and discharging the duties of party deputy president, said this in his speech at the Gathering of the People with the Leader at Dataran Bagandang, near here today.

Also present were Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman, Beaufort UMNO division chief Datuk Isnin Aliasnih and Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development who is also Beaufort Member of Parliament Datuk Azizah Mohd Dun.

However, Ahmad Zahid said UMNO and BN members and leaders who were highly determined and patient remained loyal to the party and continued their struggles on the awareness that only UMNO and the BN could champion the cause of the people.

"(This was) because no other party can champion the cause of the people, no other party can fight for the people''s needs, no other party for the people to depend on except for UMNO and the other BN component parties,"Ahmad Zahid pointed out.

Ahmad Zahid said he had increased his confidence in the ability of UMNO and BN to champion the cause of the people not because he was nostalgic or reminiscing on the excellent services provided to the people but instead he wanted to state the commitment of the party to continue its excellent service.

"...we are determined, as in the past, that if we have a good track record, if we have the excellence, our determination (is that) we will be doing better for the whole population,"he said.

Unlike the UMNO and BN leaders, he said, the former (UMNO) party leaders who were frustrated were also nostalgic but with their ámbition to paint the sky''which was impossible to do because the sky would turn blue as soon as the clouds moved away and the blue colour of the sky was the symbol of BN.