Puteri Umno begitu optimis mampu menarik minat 1.5 juta ahli tetapi ia cuma berhasil memikat 20,000 muka baru sahaja. Rafidah menafikan beliau mengumumkan angka itu untuk merendahkan imej Puteri. Dia juga mendakwa wanita Umno yang lebih tua di dalam parti telah bersungguh membawa anak perempuan mereka menyertai parti. Team Puteri Umno berkeras menyatakan angka sebenar lebih dari itu.

Sebelum itu Ketua Penerangan Puteri Umno, Mistina Abdul Hamid menyatakan bilangannya jauh lebih besar. Rafidah mengeluarkan angka 'sebenar' yang berbeda sekali.

Menurut Rafidah Wanita Umno mempunyai lebih sejuta ahli - itupun setelah bertahun-tahun - bukannya dalam selang beberapa hari.

Kalau setakat bilangan sahaja sudah berkelahi mampukah Puteri dan Wanita berganding bahu nanti? Nampak sangat Rafidah tidak pandai mengambil hati Puteri Umno sendiri, inikan pula gadis-gadis muda di seluruh negeri. Kalau beginilah cara Wanita dan Puteri bertikam lidah menyakitkan hati, alamat rosaklah muda-mudi negara ini. Ada banyak isu yang penting lagi yang lebih berfaedah. Lagipun yang penting bukannya nombor atau bilangan ahli, tetapi kualiti.

Tidak guna Umno memiliki berjuta-juta ahli jika mereka lesap dan tidak muncul dihari mengundi. Entah-entah sedang khusyu' mendengar lagu Erra yang lebih disenangi dari pening kepala memikirkan nombor mana yang betul ni.

Untuk peminat Erra ada sesuatu yang perlu dipelajari di sini. Kalau belum melangkah sudah menarik diri tidakkah itu bermakna politik UMNO mengganggu kerjaya dan imej Erra sendiri? Antara karier dan perjuangan Puteri, Erra memilih karier walaupun masih menjadi ahli biasa Puteri. Itu sudah satu tamparan yang amat kuat pada pipi sang Puteri. Soalnya - apakah ia tebal pipi?

-Ulasan Man Kubur-

Rujukan:

http://livenews.lycosasia.com/cgi-bin/get.pl? pi_news_id=761543&pi_ctry=my&pi_lang=en

Malaysia UMNO Falls Short In Drive For More Women Members

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP)--Malaysia's ruling party has attracted about 20,000 fresh faces to join its newly formed young women's wing - far fewer than its target of 1.5 million, a senior official said Tuesday.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad approved the creation of the wing earlier this year to enlist women aged younger than 35 who want a role in the dominant United Malays National Organization.

The novice division - called UMNO Princesses - launched a nationwide membership drive two months ago, but failed to recruit as many as hoped.

"This is the fact, not something that I made up," said Rafidah Aziz, leader of the party's main women's wing. "We have to accept the fact."

Rafidah, quoted by the national news agency Bernama, said the figure wasn't announced to demoralize her junior officials. She claimed that many older women in the party have been urging their daughters to join the wing.

Some officials in the UMNO Princesses team insisted last week that the actual number of members is higher than the official total on registration rolls.

UMNO has been under pressure to maintain support among the country's predominant Malay Muslims, many of whom deserted Mahathir after he fired his popular deputy Anwar Ibrahim in 1998.

Anwar's subsequent trials on s###my and corruption charges which he claims were politically motivated energized Malaysia's opposition, which have has inroads into UMNO's powerbase.

Anwar is serving prison sentences totaling 15 years. Mahathir denies any conspiracy against his former protege.

Ethnic Malays, who comprise nearly 60% of Malaysia's 22 million people, make up the political backbone of this Southeast Asian nation. Ethnic Chinese and Indians make up the largest minority groups.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires 19-06-01

http://www.emedia.com.my/z/Current_News/NST/ Tuesday/NewsBreak/20010619183409/Article/pp_index_html

KUALA LUMPUR

Puteri Umno has to be realistic about membership target: Rafidah

by V. Shankar Ganesh & P. Sharmini (news@nstp.com.my)

Puteri Umno has to be more realistic about its membership target and to differentiate between including sympathisers and card-carrying members.

Making this call today, Wanita Umno head Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz said Puteri Umno's projected 20,000 membership by the time of its launch on Aug 3 was based on the response from State Wanita heads.

She said Johor targeted about 10,000 members while other states targeted about 2,000 or 1,000 members for the new movement.

Rafidah said she had dislosed the projected figures from the states last Friday after chairing the Wanita executive council meeting.

She was commenting on Puteri Umno's information chief Mistina Abdul Hamid's statement that she was shocked at the figure as the current membership of Puteri was several times more than that.

Rafidah was speaking to reporters after the launch of the Women Products Corridor by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at the Putra World Trade Centre here. Abdullah is Umno deputy president.

Rafidah said Puteri Umno should not assume all those who attended its functions were members as many were actually Wanita members.

They may have many sympathisers but to get them to sign up as members is important. Wanita now has over a million members. This was achieved over 40 years of hard work and not done overnight.

She said Wanita Umno was helping in the recruitment as many of its members were urging their children to join Puteri Umno as this could be their training ground for the future.

Rafidah said Puteri Umno leaders had asked Wanita division heads to recruit professionals.

She said Puteri Umno could help boost Umno membership as it could attract the younger generation who wanted to join a movement of their peers.

As the Wanita movement is strong in the rural areas, Puteri Umno can target the urban areas, added Rafidah.

On the movement's agenda for the Wanita general assembly tomorrow, she said it never had a different agenda from Umno's.

There is no Rafidah or Wanita agenda. The only agenda is the party's agenda for 2004.

She said the movement was also glad to note that no woman was found guilty of money politics by the Umno disciplinary board.

This bodes well for the party as women are the backbone of it.

Twelve Umno members were suspended from their posts while nine were reprimanded by the board for money politics in the last party elections.