KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: Umno members must counter the notion that they are arrogant and corrupt, said Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The Umno president said the party must show the people that it always had their interest at heart.

"This is very important," he said at the party's 62nd anniversary celebrations at Putra World Trade Centre here yesterday.

He said there were accusations hurled at Umno that it was arrogant and weak.

"We should not close our ears to these accusations. God gave us ears to hear. We must dispel these accusations against us and clean up what is not right," he said, adding that there was strength in integrity, a virtue that every Umno member should have.

He also said it was important to safeguard the party's, coalition's and government's integrity.

"I do not want people in government or those who are MPs and assemblymen hauled up in court for corruption, abuse of power or other criminal offences.

"I don't want to see newspapers highlighting such cases because I expect something better from you all," he said.

Touching on the 12th general election results, he said, it was clear that voters gave the party and Barisan Nasional a "signal" that something was not right.

"I admit the results were really not good. I feel sad, really sad about it. But we should remember that although our majorities were reduced and we lost support, we still won a substantial number of seats.

"Umno won 79 parliamentary seats which is far more than PAS and PKR put together. So we should not be in a state of panic and chaos and act as if our party lost, and allow the losing (Opposition) parties to behave as if they won," he said. Calling on Umno members not to patah semangat (lose heart), Abdullah said it was crucial to fulfil promises made to the people and take care of their needs.

"We must be united and be of service to the people. That is our party objective and slogan all this while. Bersatu, Bersetia, Berkhidmat (United, Loyal and of Service) - what's the meaning of our slogan if we forget to do this?" he added.

Abdullah said the country was currently going through another economic crisis due to high oil prices and rising food prices globally and that the impact was felt by the people.

He said it was important for the Government to act to ease the burden on the people, and pointed out that the petrol subsidy borne by the Government had grown to RM45bil a year compared to RM35bil the previous year because of the world crude oil prices.

Touching on the non-Malays, Abdullah gave the assurance that although Umno was a Malay party, it always gave support to its non-Malay component parties and members.

Abdullah also said in the past 62 years Umno had gone through many ups and downs.

"But Umno has survived until today because we carry the party in our hearts. Even when Umno was deregistered, we did not die because the Umno in our hearts can never die," he said.