Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan was sacked from the Umno Batu Kawan division vice-chairman post. He says he is unhappy with the way the party had dealt with the matter – Malaysian Insider pic, February 28, 2015
The Umno man who ruffled feathers in his party for lodging a police report on the debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) late last year, was sacked from his position as Batu Kawan division vice-chairman.
Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan learnt of this after getting a letter from party secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor this week.
In a statement, Khairuddin said he was fired from his position because of his bankruptcy case.
He said he was unhappy with the way the party had dealt with the matter, as he was never called or sent a show-cause letter to explain himself.
"I’m surprised with the attitude of the Umno headquarters, which never called me for any clarification on real position of my financial issue. Why didn't they contact me?
“The Umno head office failed to observe party constitutional guidelines,” he said in the statement yesterday.
"My predicament is because I was a corporate guarantor for a company. The company has started paying off its debts. The matter is now being resolved by my lawyer."
Khairuddin was declared a bankrupt in May last year by the Malaysian Insolvency Department. It is learnt that his party received a report on it in December.
According to the Umno Constitution, Rules 8.4 and 28.9 state that a bankrupt will be automatically disqualified from holding or contesting any position in the party.
Section 9A(1)(d) of the Societies Act 1966 also states that an undischarged bankrupt cannot hold any office in any society.
Meanwhile, Penang Umno secretary Datuk Musa Sheikh Fadzir has confirmed Khairuddin's sacking.
He said Penang Umno had received a letter on the matter from the party headquarters and stressed that his removal as division vice-chairman was done constitutionally.
"He is still an Umno member and he can attend the annual Umno general assembly as a delegate from the Batu Kawan division," Musa said.
Khairuddin, who lodged a police report on 1MDB in early December, said he accepted his removal as a price he had to pay for uphold the truth and for fighting graft.
He also vowed that he would not be cowed by political pressure, nor abandon his struggle.
Even without a position in the party, he said he would continue to speak up for the interest of the public.
"I am leaving to Mecca to perform the Haj today. When I come back, I will clarify my position in Umno in detail," he added.
In his December police report, Khairuddin called for a “detailed and comprehensive” investigation, urging authorities to interrogate 1MDB’s directors and representatives of any company that might be implicated in its scandals.
He said that he lodged the police report after studying various reports in national and international print and online media that “clearly proved” there were weaknesses in 1MDB’s management of taxpayers’ funds.
Besides Khairuddin, other Umno members have also taken 1MDB to task – the most prominent critics being former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former finance minister Tun Daim Zaindudin.
Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which is headed by an Umno MP Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed, has also asked the auditor-general to conduct an audit of the troubled firm before the PAC itself probes 1MDB.
- TMI
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