Selangor Umno rejects Jamal's resignation letter

Selangor Umno today unanimously rejected Sungai Besar Umno chief Jamal Md Yunos' resignation letter.

Selangor Umno chief Noh Omar said this is due to Jamal's performance in leading the party in the semi-rural Selangor constituency.

However, the Umno supreme council will make the final decision on whether Jamal will remain Sungai Besar Umno and BN chief, he said.

"We will leave it up to the Umno supreme council," he told reporters at the Selangor Umno headquarters in Shah Alam today.

Jamal, who was recently arrested for suspected armed robbery after he led a vigilante raid on alleged gambling dens, earlier said he was resigning so he would not smear the party's image.

Noh said Selangor Umno is rejecting the resignation because Jamal played a significant role in BN's victory in the Sungai Besar by-election last year.

BN's Budiman Mohd Zohdi won with a majority of 9,191 votes.

"Jamal's commitment resulted in extraordinary results in the by-election. This is why we believe he is still qualified to be Umno division chief and BN chairperson there," he said.

He added that Jamal's activities in his capacity as an NGO leader is unrelated to the party.

"Our practice is that as long as he is not charged in court, there is no reason to resign," he said.

'Azmin meant the DAP reps'

On a separate matter, Noh said Selangor Menteri Besar Azmin Ali must not have been in a lucid state of mind when he claimed a senior cabinet member will quit.

"I think Azmin met the wrong person. He actually met the DAP MP and assemblypersons from Malacca (who yesterday quit the party)," the Housing, Local Government and Urban Well-being Minister quipped.

"He may be half-awake at the time, so he wrongly tweeted," he said referring to Azmin's revelation made on Twitter.

Azmin had tweeted that a senior cabinet minister is quitting over 1MDB.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak immediately refuted the claims while other cabinet ministers said they did not know who Azmin was referring to.

The PKR deputy president, however, maintained that he had spoken to the cabinet minister himself who confessed his desires to quit over 1MDB.

Last year Finance Minister II Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah was speculated to have resigned over the controversial state investment firm.

Husni did not explicitly confirm the speculation, but had following his resignation raised queries on 1MDB in his capacity as a backbencher in Parliament.- Mkini