OH OH, ZAHID CAUGHT FLOUTING UMNO RULES: Will he escape, is it fair to his rivals?

With just two weeks to go before the Umno supreme council elections, Umno vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has a lot of crowd pleasing to do and one tactic he appears to be employing is media bashing.

On Friday in Kuala Lumpur, he had unloaded on a Malaysiakini journalist during a press conference for posing questions to him in his capacity as home minister about missing police assets.

The following day, Zahid was involved in another outburst, this time in Ayer Keroh, Malacca, threatening to close down newspapers that reported the content of his speech.

Along with several candidates vying for seats on the Umno supreme council, Zahid was at Ayer Keroh for what appeared to be a government function at the Malacca International Trade Centre.

According to the backdrop of the stage, the event was billed as 'Majlis taklimat keselamatan bersama pemimpin masyarakat' (Security briefing ceremony with community leaders) and carried the federal and Malacca government emblems.

There were no party logos in sight. But in Zahid's speech - Malaysiakini has obtained a 20-minute recording of it - he made it clear that the event was only for Umno delegates.

Change of tone

Zahid's speech was mainly about his role in securing amendments to the Prevention of Crime Act 1959, or what his described as "my law", that was peppered with jokes about Malay gangsters and some off-colour comments that are bound to annoy the Indian and Chinese Malaysian communities.

About 11 minutes in, Zahid appeared to be aware that there were journalists in the room and instructed them not to report certain parts of his speech.

"Sorry. If there are reporters, don't write this," he said.

However, towards the end of the event, Zahid appeared to have a change of heart and warned journalists, in a loud and angry tone, not to write about the event or their newspapers would be closed down. The transcript of this portion of his speech follows:

"They (journalists), don't write. This is closed door session, please. Don't write anything. Don't take any photograph of me and the crowd. I do not allow it. This is a closed-door session.

"I don't want; as informed by the CM (chief minister), this is a closed-door meeting; this is only for Umno delegates. If any news about what I say appears in the newspapers, be it in Malay, English or Chinese or Tamil, I will shut down that newspaper.

"Do not write, I say do not publish, do not put on Facebook, do not anything. I know what to do. You are dealing with Zahid Hamidi okay?"

The remarks were followed by loud cheers and shouts of "Keluar!" (get out) from those present.

Predicts Idris Harun in 'top 5'

It was difficult to speculate why Zahid, who was his usual jovial self during his speech that was laced with many punchlines, abruptly turned against the journalists.

Perhaps he had remembered that Umno rules do not allow him to campaign at events not sanctioned by the party.

In his speech, Zahid said he wants to see Malacca Chief Minister Idris Harun as one of the "top five" winners in the Umno supreme council race and would promote him throughout the country.

He also presented to the audience four supreme council candidates - Shahidan Kassim, Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim, Shamsul Anuar Nasarah and Nur Jazlan Mohamed.

Ayer Keroh state assemblyperson Khoo Poay Tiong, who supplied Malaysiakini with the recording of Zahid's speech, blasted the latter for allegedly abusing government machinery for party purposes.

"What they did is an abuse of power and misuse of government machinery... This is all public money, how can they use it for their campaign. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission should investigate and take action," he said.

Khoo also rubbished Zahid's claim that the event was meant to be a closed-door function, as tables were allocated for the journalists and they were accompanied by the minister's secretary.

"So how can he threaten the media like that? Is there no media freedom? He is not fit to be a minister," he said.