Oct 5, 2008

Khairy: I’m contesting on my own merit

REMBAU, Oct 5 - Umno Youth vice-head Khairy Jamaluddin said he is vying for the post of Youth chief on his own merit without influence or help from other factors.

The Rembau Member of Parliament hoped that the delegates and Umno Youth members would evaluate his candidacy on his personal credibility and strength.

“I hope whatever decision made by the party leadership (president and deputy president) will not influence the vote of the members,” he said at his Hari Raya Open House at the Kampong Gadong Community Hall, Kota, near here today.

He said this when asked about his position as a candidate for the Umno Youth top post if party president Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi were to announce that he would not be seeking re-election.

“The Umno Youth members must choose for the future of the young people in the party. My decision won’t change no matter what the president decides.

“I never served as the son-in-law of the president or prime minister during my tenure as Umno Youth deputy chief.

"I got down to the ground, I became director of the by-election machinery... I conducted programmes and various others things on my own initiative and this will not change whether Pak Lah or Datuk Seri Najib is the president. I will continue with my work as a leader of the young generation in Umno,” he said.

Commenting on the proposal to turn BN into a single party, Khairy said it had its advantages in attracting the interest of every strata of the society to join the party.

He said the political reality currently was that it would be difficult to unite the BN component parties into one single party because there were still issues that were based on race that had yet to be resolved.


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