Ku Nan chews out Wanita No. 2 over call for Shahrizat’s exit

March 22, 2012

Tengku Adnan said Kamilia should dispute the party’s decision to keep Shahrizat on as Wanita chief. — File pic

KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 — Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor today admonished Wanita Umno deputy chief Datuk Kamilia Ibrahim for demanding Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s resignation as the wing’s chief, saying the remark was out of line.

“By right, such a statement should not have come about because the matter has been discussed and a decision taken that Shahrizat will continue to be Wanita Umno chief until the next term,” Bernama Online reported the Umno secretary-general as saying today.

Kamilia, one of Shahrizat’s more vocal critics from within Umno, said in a report in The Star today that it was not enough for her chief to step down as federal minister next month and urged the latter to also retire as head of Wanita Umno and Wanita Barisan Nasional (BN).

She claimed that the public thought something was “morally and politically wrong” with how National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) was run and that this was affecting polls preparations.

NFCorp is headed by Shahrizat’s husband, Datuk Seri Mohamad Salleh Ismail, who has been charged with criminal breach of trust for allegedly misusing the cattle-rearing company’s federal loan.

But Kamilia’s call has since received a rebuke from other leaders in the Wanita wing, who said support for the embattled Shahrizat remains “very united and robust”.

“It (Kamilia’s remark) does not at all give the true picture of what is happening in Umno’s women movement regarding that particular issue (National Feedlot Centre or ‘NFC’) whether at the exco level, state, division or even the grassroots,” read a statement from the movement’s top leaders.

Adnan added Shahrizat had also earned her spot at the head of the division.

“She was elected to the post, so why is this (call for her to quit) being raised?” he was quoted further in the report.

Shahrizat announced on March 11 that she would step down as women, family and community minister when her term as senator expires on April 8.

Her announcement came after nearly five months of allegations that she and her family had used a RM250 million government soft loan earmarked for NFCorp to pay for personal expenses, among others.

NFCorp, which supervises the NFC, hit national headlines after the company made it into the Auditor-General’s Report last year for missing production targets.