My top five favorite Umno leaders

Much had been said about bad Umno people. The Pakatan gang have been going all out to highlight them. To a certain extent, they have been successful in running down Umno in that manner, especially among those who never really know much about the real Umno leaders.

I have to admit that there were indeed quite a number of these bad Umno people. The selfish, greedy and even out right evil. Nonetheless, I have also met many more Umno people who are sincere, humble and good. Based on that, I have concluded that it is not the party which is bad, but individuals.

Umno as a party has good ideals. It had done good for the country for more than half a century. The bumiputera have improved their lot from being almost 70 per cent living in poverty at the start of 1970s. Despite being still the poorest ethnic group, they are now much better off than before. The non-bumiputera, especially the Chinese, despite complaints from some, are doing even much better.

If Umno people are all as rotten as accussed, I don't think this country could even reached its current level of development. Yes, Umno is not perfect, but as far as I'm concerned, the party do have more good than bad people.

In conjunction with the Umno general assembly which starts tomorrow, I would like to introduce five Umno leaders whom I had personally met and found to be good guys. I present them here as according to whom I like most -

5. Datuk Sufian Awang. A lawyer by training and is the number one exco member of Umno Youth. The guy is as straight as an arrow and works hard not just for the party but also the ordinary folks living in the area where he lives in Kuantan. One of the best hope of Umno's future.

4. Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed. The man in charge of Kelantan Umno. I first met him almost 15 years ago. A bureaucrat who prefers to work hard rather than wasting too much time and energy on politicking. He should be a role model for Umno's second liners.

3. Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir. Another unassuming Umno man. I first met him before he became active in politics. At that first meeting I didn't even know that he is a son of the then PM DS Dr Mahathir Mohamad. We talked about scuba diving at that time. A soft spoken and very pleasant man. He may be deemed to be silver spooned but I found him to be sincere and works hard to do good for all. Another best hope for Umno's future.

2. Datuk Seri Najib Razak. He is the only one among my top five favorite Umno leaders whom I never had a personal conversation with. But I had the privilege of closely observing his work as a wakil rakyat. I actually did not have a very good impression of Najib before that. Only after I had personally observed how he connects with his constituents in Pekan that I realized how sincere he is when dealing with the ordinary folks.

1. Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman. I had written so much about Ghani that I don't think I need to write here again on why I think so highly of him. Actually, the real reason I put him as my number one favorite Umno leader is because I know him more than the other leaders. Not unlike any other man, he has his faults but as an Umno leader, he embodies the best the party could offer. Sincere, sensible, honest, selfless, incorruptible, works hard and almost devoid of nonsense. As a Johorean, I am glad that my home state has him as a leader.

There are many more good Umno leaders other than these five men. Some of the women leaders are equally good. I wish I could put more of them here, but this posting may get too long if I do that.

Note: For this posting, I will not allow unsubstantiated personal attacks against these five Umno leaders featured here. So, for those who want to use this posting  as a platform to attack them, please forget it as I will spike off such comments. If anyone feels so strongly against any of these leaders and want to badmouth them, please set up your own blog and do it there. Thank you.