Nazri dismisses Pribumi threat and Mahathir’s leadership

(The Star) – Umno supreme council member Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz is not threatened by the emergence of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Pribumi), saying that the year-old splinter party lacks charismatic leaders.

In an exclusive interview, Nazri pointed out that rural Malay voters have traditionally voted for a Malay-based party, which has largely consisted of just Umno or PAS.

He added that charismatic leaders play a crucial factor in newly formed parties, and is of the view that Pribumi chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is a leader who lacks a clear political vision.

“When you form a new party, the most important thing is that you must have charismatic leaders, like PKR’s (Datuk Seri) Anwar Ibrahim.

“His son Mukhriz (Mahathir) and (Tan Sri) Muhyiddin Yassin are not charismatic leaders,” he said.

Nazri trained his guns on Pribumi’s leadership, arguing that its top leaders are mere “recycled leaders” from Umno plagued by their “past misdeeds”.

“They were a big part of those complaints made against Barisan in the past and there seems to be no injustice done to them. Just like what Mahathir did to Anwar.

“If we are talking about those parties giving us a real fight in the upcoming GE, I would speak about DAP, PAS and PKR,” he said.

“But Mahathir’s party is a non-factor. They even have problems with registering the youth wing ‘Armada’ with the Registrar of Societies (RoS).

“Armada belongs to the ocean right? But now it’s Armada on the land. So, we can throw them back to the sea!” he quipped.

Two weeks ago, RoS said that “Armada” was an illegal term and warned that stern action could be taken against Pribumi for using it for its youth wing.

At the same time, the RoS said that Pribumi was in violation of its own constitution and the Societies Act for failing to hold its annual general meeting within a year of its formation.

Nazri did concede that PKR might pose a threat to Umno this time around, given PAS’ exit from the now-defunct Pakatan Rakyat in 2015.

“It’s no longer safe now since PAS is out of Pakatan Rakyat. If PKR comes in, the rural constituencies will no longer be Umno’s stronghold.

“If Umno and PAS fight for Malay votes, the general public would assume that non-Malay votes will go to PKR and the non-Malay votes are not split.

“But some of the Malay votes may go to PKR, so I think PKR is going to be a threat.

“Don’t think it’s easy – three-cornered fights do not necessarily mean a victory for Umno. We have to be careful,” he said.