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Saturday, July 29, 2006

UMNO Div told Mahathir's persona non grata

Remember my earlier posting UMNO’s 'Silence of the Kambings'? Tough if you haven’t – but anyway you can either read the above link or the summary that follows ;-)

It’s about the party leaders warning the UMNO divisional people not to entertain Dr Mahathir. Apart from notice from the UMNO information chief, Muhammad Muhammad Taib, AAB himself add in a few threatening words like: “We do not want anything to happen in the party that will later cause a split. So if UMNO divisions want to take certain actions for the good of their own divisions, that is within their right.”

That’s as good as saying, don't talk to that loose cannon or else, but don't you dare say I ordered you.

Then he reminded those division leaders who may be tempted to fly the doctor’s banner that UMNO tradition doesn’t allow anyone who’s not a council member or UMNO Cabinet minister to address any division meetings, which is just around the corner on Aug 3.

He warned: “It was this way before, it is this way now and it will stay this way for the future. Everyone has his or her responsibilities.''

But UMNO Padang Besar division head Zahidi Zainul Abidin has other ideas. On Wednesday, the Star reported that Zahidi, supposedly an up-and-coming UMNO leader who may be Khairy Jamaluddin’s future competition, said there was “nothing controversial about inviting a respectable statesman to open a division meeting.”

He praised Dr Mahathir as a true UMNO leader as well as an internationally acclaimed leader, who deserves a chance to speak on an UMNO platform. He hinted that would be better than allowing the opposition to take advantage of Dr Mahathir’s willingness to speak on their platform.

He asserted he would proceed with his plans to invite the former premier unless there was a directive in black and white from the party to him against doing so, which of course he knew there won’t be. Black & white stuff are not convenient, and are usually ‘classified’.

But UMNO’s secretary-general Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad warned him not to proceed with his plans for Dr Mahathir Mohamed to officiate his division meeting. Zahidi will be breaching party discipline and will face the consequences of his actions.

Radzi added: “I’m very disappointed and I hope he won’t go through with this. The party discipline must be upheld. The question of Mahathir officiating a division does not arise.”

Radzi also expressed his annoyance that Ibrahim Ali, sacked from UMNO, had enticed Dr Mahathir into a speaking engagement at Kota Baru. But he quickly added that he had been outraged too by the mace attack on Mahathir.

He informed us: “UMNO has never treated its members this way! This is not the way to treat people! I hope (the assailant) is not an UMNO member. This is a very un-UMNO way of doing things.”

May I just say bullsh*t to his last comment about ‘un-UMNO way of doing things’.

Just as a reminder, the deputy IGP had stated that the incident was linked to the rivalry between two groups of Mahathir supporters, one led by expelled-from-UMNO Ibrahim Ali and the other by former UMNO Kuala Krai leader Nik Safian Nik Yusof.

Does the fact that it was an expelled-from-UMNO Ibrahim Ali who had invited and organised the reception for Dr Mahathir that contributed, if not instigated, the mace attack?

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