No crisis in Umno Youth, declares Khairy

Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin today declared that the movement is not facing any leadership crisis and that the meeting with the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was only a “courtesy visit”.

“Of course there has been a lot of speculation regarding today’s meeting, I have read on various online portals, but you have to understand that firstly, our meeting with the prime minister today, was just a coincidence that it took place after various speculation surfaced,” said Khairy when met by reporters outside the prime minister’s office here.

“It has nothing to do with the last exco meeting, it was not a meeting to solve a crisis because there was no crisis, it was very clear that today’s meeting was about our future direction,” he added insisting that the alleged infighting was not raised during the meeting with Najib.

Khairy also said a lot of issues within the movement have been addressed but differences of opinion will continue to exist.

“As one of my excos said, I am not running a PIBG, but a political organisation, with 100,000 members, one of the most influential political organisation in the country, so definitely there will be different views, as the Youth Chief I have to accept,” he said.

Khairy said among other things raised at the meeting with Najib was the role that can be played by the youths in Umno.

He said Najib had asked the movement to forward their recommendations on various government policies to the administration.

“We touched a lot on the role of the youths and how to create [a] touch point with the youngsters through the Umno and Barisan Nasional Youth,” said Khairy.

The two-hour meeting with Najib, which was attended by all members of the movement’s executive committee members, took place just about two weeks after a heated Umno Youth meeting where an exco member, Hishamuddin Yahya, was said to have asked Khairy to quit for being ineffective.

Hishamuddin had also called for fresh election to choose a more effective line-up of Youth leaders.

But after reports of the rift surfaced, Khairy made known on his Facebook status that he was attending an Umno Youth function in Labuan with Hishamuddin.

Days later, he appeared together with Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir, whom he defeated to become Youth chief, at a Juara Rakyat event in Jerlun, Kedah, and several pictures of them were also uploaded on Khairy’s Facebook page.

news courtesy of Malaysian Insider