The Titiwangsa Umno division chief said the party’s culture of envy and betrayal, even at branch level, will have an adverse impact on Umno’s political fortunes.
“Let’s work as a team to win back Titiwangsa,” he told the division’s delegates here today.
Speaking at the same event, Umno vice president Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi pointed out that party members like to wash their dirty linen in public, unlike Pakatan Rakyat (PR).
He said while there were similar disputes within PKR, PAS and DAP, the opposition was better at hiding their dissatisfaction with one another from the public.
Tools like online media would be better used against the opposition and not to further rivalries within the party as this would only serve to supply ammunition to the enemy, Zahid also said.
“When the general election comes around, these bullets return to kill us,” he warned.
Zahid added that Umno members should focus all their attention on the general election and not spend time politicking in preparation for party polls.
Umno and its Barisan Nasional (BN) are preparing to hold a dry run for the next general election to gauge the readiness of party machinery.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is widely tipped to call for an early general election this year.
The Malaysian Insider understands, however, that Najib is likely to delay snap polls until the end of this year or early 2012 as his party hunts for funds to finance a campaign to court Bumiputera and Indian voters in a bid to secure a two-thirds parliamentary majority.
It is understood Umno’s coffers were depleted after BN spent some RM500 million for the April 16 Sarawak election.
BN insiders also say Najib is cautious about calling elections soon as he wants to regain the coalition’s two-thirds parliamentary majority which now appears impossible with the Chinese snub continuing in the Sarawak election.
Chinese-based MCA took a battering in the historic general election — which also robbed BN of its customary two-thirds majority — when the party won only 15 out of 40 parliamentary seats it contested.
