Umno supreme council member Mohd Puad Zarkashi has blamed the "cronysim" practised by the party vice president Hishammuddin Hussein and former Johor Menteri Besar Khaled Nordin for the "shameful defeat" of BN in Johor.
Taking to Facebook today, he said Umno is celebrating its 72nd birthday today in the face of "tragic defeat".
He said the defeat of several BN ministers, deputy ministers and even Khaled Nordin himself at both the Pasir Gudang parliamentary and Permas state seats was shocking.
"Of course the defeat will bring sadness," he said.
"For me, Khaled and Hishammuddin should accept 'all the mistakes made' that had led to the shameful defeat, what more since Johor was the backbone of Umno," he said.
"As what I previously said, Khaled had smeared the concept of 'Muafakat Johor' that is the pride of Johoreans.
"Our 'Muafakat Johor' has been turned into rubbish, to the point that it is mere rhetoric," he said.
Puad blamed Khaled and Hishamuddin for distributing the Johor seats to their cronies to contest.
“Many division leaders were not invited to negotiate in the candidates selection. Even though they are the leaders who had been chosen by the grassroots,” he said.
“They are the ones who had worked night and day to lead the divisions to face the election. Suddenly, they were sidelined, just like that,” he added.
“So what was the resulting disaster? Many (members) had cast protest votes (against their party),” he claimed.
Destroyed by 'Umno tsunami'
He said Umno members had spoiled their votes, or stayed home to boycott the polls, “and worse of all, voted for the opposition”.
“That is what had happened in Johor. It's no secret, when the BN machinery were speaking, they were only pretending to work (for the ruling party) but in their hearts, they voted for the opposition,” said Puad.
In the end, he said, to teach Khaled and Hishamuddin a lesson, what happened was a “tsunami that had the participation of Umno people themselves”.
He urged the party members to rise and be brave to choose leaders who are worthy, and “wipe out the warlord politics” in Umno.
If not, he warned, Umno will find it hard to ever rise again.
