SERI SERDANG REP NOT RESIGNING, SAYS KHIR TOYO

Former Selangor menteri besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo denied today rumours that Umno's Seri Serdang state assemblyperson Mohd Satim Diman wants to step down.

“It's just things written in the social media,” the state opposition chief said in an mobile text message toMalaysiakini.

Satim, who is also Selangor Umno liaison secretary and Puchong Umno division chief, has been rumoured to be intending to quit all political posts.

According to a Bernama report, journalists hoping to catch Satim at the liaison committee's management meeting last night to get his comment on the rumours were met with disappointment when the politician failed to turn up.

They had waited until 12.30am at the Selangor Umno office, while attempts earlier to reach him via phone and SMS went unanswered.

When approached after the management meeting, Selangor Umno liaison committee deputy chairman Noh Omar (left) said he was unaware of the rumour that Satim wished to step down from all his political posts.

Noh also said that besides Mohamed Satim, Selangor Umno treasurer Fateh Iskandar Mohamed Mansor and state Youth chief Suhaimi Ghazali were also absent as they had matters to attend to abroad.

He said Satim had contacted him earlier to say that he would not be able to attend the meeting as he had another matter to attend to.

Another Umno leader in the Puchong Umno division, meanwhile, called for all parties to desist from spreading rumours about Satim.

'Don't make any presumptions'

Puchong division executive committee member Abdul Hamid Md Yusof said Satim had called him last night and asked that everyone “keep mum about the matter” and not to make any presumptions”.

“I told him (Satim) that if the rumours are not true, let's hold a media conference to deny the whole thing. But he told me to just stay quiet.

“I myself do not why he put it that way,” he told Malaysiakini when contacted.

According to Abdul Hamid, Puchong Umno had issued orders that the issue of Satim's purported plan to step down not be "made a big issue".

He said he himself had heard rumours of the matter last week. However, in a recent division meeting, Satim did not raise the issue of stepping down.

“In the meeting, we talked about intensifying the struggle. There was no problem,” he said.

Mohamed Satim won the Seri Serdang state seat by a tissue-thin majority of 45 votes in 2008 general election against PAS' Ahmad Idzam Ahmad.

Seri Serdang, a constituency of 49,757 voters, is a ethnicly mixed seat with Malays (52.1%), Chinese (31.6%) and Indians(16.1%).

courtesy of Malaysiakini