Double Six: ‘Better for Berjaya’s Bumi leaders to join Umno’

Published on: Monday, June 21, 1976

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Commenting on the recent plane tragedy, Datuk Dzulkilli described the death of Tun Fuad Stephens as a great and irrepairable loss for Berjaya party. He said Tun Fuad had very extensive experience in tackling political problems. Other Berjaya leaders who died in the air crash also had long experience in politics, he said.

“The late Datuk Salleh Sulong had about ten years of political experience behind him. Both the late Datuk Peter Mojuntin and the late Encik Chong Thian Vun had about 15 years in politics.

“The deaths of these experienced leaders of Berjaya is very significant loss to the Berjaya party and they are very hard to replace. With the departure of these able leaders, a leadership vacumm has obviously been created.

“It is not easy for the present Berjaya leaders to fill this vacumm. Political experience and good leadership in politics can be acquired only over a long period of time.

“However, Berjaya’s short-comings can be overcome if the party’s bumiputra leaders were to join the Umno.

“The same applies to Usno which now requires new blood to be injected to keep up with the constantly changing times,” he said.

Datuk Dzul also expressed his strong belief that the acceptance of Usno to be a member of BN could create a more healthy political atmosphere for the sake of the rakyat.

“It is only with the entry of Usno in the BN that political stabilisation could be guaranteed in Sabah. With the political stability it would be easier for the govt. to face all kinds of threats including communist insurgency at our Malaysian-Thai border.

“If the political situation in Sabah is unstable, our security forces have also to tackle and concentrate on the problems in Sabah too, and this would reduce our military strength considerably in facing the nation’s for midable enemies.

The prolonging of political hostility would not benefit anybody. On the contrary, it would only jeopardise every aspect of development plans. In this present state of affairs, political differences by the parties concerned should be hurried and forgotten and instead concentrate towards the successful implementation of Third Malaysia Plan,” said Datuk Dzulkifli.