Umno man slams NGO for ‘using’ Dr M

Syed Ali says Mahathir's Saturday talk will encourage Malay disunity.

PETALING JAYA: Cheras Umno chief Syed Ali Alhabshee has accused the NGO Prihatin of using Dr Mahathir Mohamad to disunite the Malays with its hosting of last Saturday’s talk by the former prime minister.

“This is a new tactic by certain quarters to pit Umno leaders against each other in an attempt to destroy the unity of the Malays in this country,” he said in a press statement posted on the Cheras Umno website.

He noted that Mahathir’s discourse was “generally seen” as an attack on Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

He called on Umno members to be wary of “moves by certain quarters to use Mahathir” in their attempt to force Najib to resign.

Referring to news analyses that saw Saturday’s talk as the beginning of a roadshow for Mahathir to continue with his attacks, Syed Ali said he believed that Umno leaders would not be involved in the programme.

He said he feared that the roadshow would make it more obvious to the public that there’s enmity between Mahathir and Najib.

“It’s hard for me to accept that Dr Mahathir will be willing to let himself be used by certain quarters in the proposed series of talks,” he said.

“I only hope that the issue between the two leaders can be resolved in the best way possible in the interest of the Malays, Umno members and the nation as a whole.”

Syed Ali denounced former law minister Zaid Ibrahim for one of his recent comments on the Najib-Mahathir dispute.

Among other things, Zaid said Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah would be a better candidate for the post of Prime Minister than Najib’s deputy, Muhyiddin Yassin.

Calling Zaid “another trouble maker”, Syed Ali accused him of “creating an issue to gain popularity on the cheap”.

“People like him do not deserve much attention,” he said. “He was sacked from Umno, and then he joined PKR, and then he hopped out. He is the kind of human being with no principles to hold on to.”

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