Cheras Umno wants Zulhasnan out (Malaysiakini)

Umno Cheras division head Syed Ali Al Habshi has demanded the party’s Kuala Lumpur chief and Federal Territories Minister Zulhasnan Rafique to step down.Syed Ali said the division unanimously called on party president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to replace Zulhasnan with former Umno KL chief Tengku Adnan Mansor.The division wants this to be done as soon as possible, he added."Zulhasnan (left) must take responsibility over the heavy loss suffered by Umno and BN in KL and make way for Tengku Adnan to take over to consolidate the party once again," Syed Ali told reporters during the division’s extraordinary general assembly (EGM) today.In the March 8 polls, the opposition took 10 out of the 11 parliamentary seats in KL.A few weeks after that, Syed Ali said his division had submitted a resolution to Zulhasnan calling for the latter to assume responsibility over the setback and make way for the new leadership.Zulhasnan then countered this resolution by urging all Umno division chiefs in KL to ink their support for him."This is wrong. How can he force the division chiefs to do this. He must listen to the grassroots and the grassroots apparently want him to make way for a new leadership," said Syed Ali.Zulhasnan was also accused of being ‘afraid and insensitive’ for not sending a representative to attend the EGM."Is he afraid to hear the voices of the grassroots? As a leader of the party, you must listen to the grassroots and strive to fight for them," said Syed Ali.'Abolish quota system'Meanwhile, the division chief also called on the Umno president to abolish the quota system for top posts.He said the quota system has become the primary tool for the party leadership to maintain its hold on power despite not getting support from the grassroots."The leaders must be appointed by all party members and not division chiefs only. If one division has 280 members, all of them must be allowed to choose who they want as leaders," he stressed.His division’s demands, Syed Ali explained, were not prompted by other Umno leaders as alleged but were the wishes of the members.Other Umno veterans like Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his son Mukhriz have also called for the abolition of the quota system.In another development, Syed Ali also defended the controversial raising of the keris during the Umno annual general assembly by Youth chief Hishammuddin Hussein.He said this was the "rightful tradition of Malay heritage.""I don’t think Hishammuddin should apologise for the incident. Why should we? It is our culture and we should have the right to practice our culture," he added.He said the keris incident should not be politicised as even the Sultans carry the keris during formal functions.On Friday, Hishammuddin apologised if the incident had affected non-Malays.