A veteran Umno leader today said he had been asked to pay for votes in an upcoming contest for top posts, and warned that money politics would destroy the organisation.Foreign Minister Rais Yatim said "the majority" of Umno members were more interested in making money out of the election than in voting for the right person.
"The majority of Umno people want to look for money and not for good leaders," said Rais, a member of Umno's decision-making committee who is vying for the vice-presidency.
"We have been approached under the cloak of assistance and cloak of contribution. (But) I'm not a player so you don't see my marks going up very high.
"If you want to be a good player, you have to say yes (to vote-buying)," he told reporters.
Rais, who has been with Umno for over 33 years, said the problem of money politics within the ruling party should be eradicated or it "will surely kill the party."
Umno, which has ruled Malaysia since independence, is holding meetings to nominate candidates for party posts after suffering major losses in polls this year. It will hold party elections next March.
"If Umno cannot curb this practice, Umno's future is done for because this has been (talked about) for the past two decades and it has not been curbed," he said.
In July, Umno asked the country's anti-corruption agency to help it battle vote-buying ahead of the heated battle for top leadership positions in the party.
Rais has only garnered five nominations of the 19 needed to contest in the party polls.
Supreme council meeting tonight
Meanwhile, the party's highest decision-making body, the supreme council, held a meeting which lasted for some four hours at the Putra World Trade Centre tonight.
The party was expected to discuss renewed calls made for the party polls to be brought back to December from next March.
However party president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi did not hold a press conference at the end of the meeting.
"The press is not even supposed to be here," quipped Abdullah when he was pressed by journalists on what had transpired at the meeting which started at 8.30pm.
Earlier today, when asked to comment on the calls to bring the party polls back to December, Abdullah told reporters to wait for the supreme council meeting to be over first.
"Wait. There, we will meet the media and we will inform you then," he had said.
Although the party had adjourned its elections from December to next March, there have been calls from various party leaders for the polls to be brought back to December.
Many said that the campaigning period was too long before party polls in five months time while others argued that this was a move to make Abdullah step down much earlier than his earlier promise to do so in March.
In recent days, deputy president hopeful Muhyiddin Yassin also had backed such calls for the party polls to be brought back to December.
And tonight Muhyiddin informed reporters that the supreme council meeting had nothing to do with party polls.
tunku : anwar ibrahim started all these crap in umno and it has became a disease since then.no money no vote, that is the talk of the day.we hope the remaining divisions will nominate rais as vice president as he is a very capable umno leader.he should be at the top level.he has no scandals or issues till date, clean record.nominate him please.
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8 comments:
"no money,no vote"...is such a bull@#%$!.
this has gotta stop.we cant endure anymore to have the "no money,no vote" attitude.if we let this continue,then our future generation will suffer the consequences of our action today.
politician should be evaluate by their performance and not just wealth alone.
payah betul bila ada orang yang asyik ingat duit je.besar betul cabaran seorang ahli politik ini.bila kata tak maw guna duit,ada la pulak yang minta duit.
sepatutnya benda ini dihentikan.ini dah kira jadi macam budaya pulak dengan motto ""ada duit semua jalan"".duit tu memang penting tapi biarlah duit tu diguna dengan cara sepatutnya.
saya pernah dengar cerita ada yang offer sampai berpuluh ribu untuk ""swing"" undi.wow!
Salam... Susah juga macam ni... Bila pemimpin tak beri rasuah wang, beliau pula yang diminta untuk beri wang supaya memilih beliau... Kiranya, yang dok sebut selalu, nak hapuskan politik wang tu hanya kerja sia-sia. Bila pemimpin tak beri, yang bawah pula dok minta.. Apa nak jadi ni? Mungkin mereka telah diajar dari dulu. Dah sebati dalam jiwa.. Memang susahlah.. Biro disiplin UMNO macam mana? Hal ni tak boleh dibiarkan sebab orang yang kat bawah pula yang minta sekarang ni...
Itulah bahananya jika politik wang wang telah sebati dalam diri seseorang. Memang susah nak dibanteras.. Siapa lagi yang ada kuasa untuk membanteras politik wang dari terus berlaku selain daripada diri sendiri. Inilah kesannya jika mereka telah dididik oleh sesetengah pemimpin dengan rasuah wang...
politik wang dan taktik kotor berlaku bila calon-calon rasa tidak yakin pada diri mereka.jika semua calon dan akarumbi rasa yakin akan pilihan mereka,duit tidak akan menjadi ukuran.yang menjadi ukuran hanya keperibadian dan prestasi kerja.
namun secara jujurnya kita masih belum lagi diperingkat sebegitu.wang masih jadi taruhan.siapa yang banyak wang maka dialah yang akan disokong.sebab itulah ada yang tidak suka bila Abdullah mahu lakukan pembaharuan terhadap BPR kerana takut mereka yang selalu taktik kotor akan diangkut.
UMNO leaders or delegates have their choice of either keep maintainig the corrupt altitude or go for a change for betterment of UMNO survival.
Money politics almost impossible to be abolished in UMNO. After almost two decades it has become flesh and blood with the UMNO.
UMNO should dismantle the system that contributing to money politic. UMNO should let the grassroots to vote for UMNO leaders. When more than 3 millions UMNO members voting how could money politic in control instead the grassroots would be in control. Only strong leaders would emerge. Along the way the weak leaders would be perished and left behind unless they improve themself.
Whether we like to hear it or not in other words in a way the current leadership or MT also contributing to this money politics and they all have no interest at all to curb and abolish it. The leadership and MT are more capable to overcome the money politics only if they want to....but i dont think they want to erase the money politics from UMNO the party.
Act now and do not let the Rakyat to decide on UMNO survival because Rakyat would give a true verdict even to the level of making UMNO dissappear from political landscape. Our leadership and grassroot should go hand by hand to fight this disease in UMNO.
Wow ! Now only rais,the bridge burner,know about Mpolitics.
Is there REALLY an untainted politician ?
The worst comes from Umno,A culture that has overgrown into a beast.
Its all in the money dear !
Some people are of the opinion that no scandal, no issues n clean can be a leader??? Huh uhh Look again my dear sister. A lion does show its claws before he pounds.
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