Ku Nan must act against hooligans in Umno, says PKR info director

PKR has urged Umno to act against hooligans in the party, or risk being labeled as a party that is led by "thieves, crooks and robbers."

"As party secretary-general, Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansur must rectify the situation by ordering the suspension and appropriate disciplinary actions against any Umno leaders found to have engaged in or involved in violent incidents," said PKR information director Fahmi Fadzil.

He said that the rakyat would continue to monitor whether Umno was serious in resolving the spate of violence involving Umno members, or if the party was truly what former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad termed, a party led by "thieves, crooks and robbers".

The PKR information director argued that Umno's denial of any links to the violent incident on parliament grounds, on Thursday, when the Pasir Salak Umno Youth chief was involved in the alleged attack on Amanah Shah Alam parliamentarian Khalid Samad was not quite convincing.

Similarly he related, this was like Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin denying the party's complicity when Sungai Besar Umno chief Jamal Md Yunos led his red-shirts, which included Umno members, to protest against a news portal recently.

He said that this was the same tactic that Umno would use when one of their own was caught pants down at the heart of a violent incident, the party distancing itself with carefully-worded statements, but failed to take any action.

Fahmi said that it was questionable when Tengku Adnan continued to deny that Umno had anything to do with violence instigated by its members but did not take action agaisnt them, for by its inaction Umno seemed to not only tacitly condone, but might be even complicit in such incidents.

The PKR official added that while the fact that many Umno members escaped legal action was another story, the issue here was that Umno did nothing to discipline them, which he argued might mean one of two things.

That Umno lacked the political will to discipline its rowdy members, or that the party was tacitly condoning such acts, or even using such so-called 'rogue' members as pressure groups that they could then disavow. -Mkini