Umno told me to quit, says Kadir Sheikh Fadzir

The ex-Supreme Council member claims he was shown the door because he spoke out against corruption.

KUALA LUMPUR: Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir, president of the newly formed Parti Ikatan Bangsa Malaysia (Ikatan), revealed today that he was asked to quit Umno about seven years ago because he accused the government of corruption.

“When I quit, I was obviously sad,” he said. “I was in Umno for 56 years, 26 years of those as a Supreme Council member.”

Kadir quit Umno in 2008, after a long service as cabinet minister under prime ministers Mahathir Mohamad and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Speaking to reporters after launching Ikatan, he said the new party was formed out of the “necessity” to arrest the “rot” of corruption in the Malaysian governing system.

He said the party had a focused mission, which was to revive the value system associated with Malaysia’s founding fathers. He mentioned the names of Tunku Abdul Rahman, Onn Jaafar , Tan Cheng Lock and VT Sambanthan. They focused on collective goodness and inclusive nation building, he said.

The multiracial Ikatan, he said, would promote the idea of a “Bangsa Malaysia”.

The difference between Bangsa Malaysia and 1Malaysia, he explained, was that 1Malaysia had been politicized and abused to a point that it is considered a “Barisan Nasional brand” instead of a Malaysian one.

“Half of the population, the 52% who did not vote for BN, did not accept the 1Malaysia concept,” he said.

“Bangsa Malaysia is what our founding fathers wanted all along. It’s also part of Vision 2020, which had mutual consensus. Everybody, including the opposition, supported that.”

Kadir stressed that the party was not at all thinking or worried about the next general election, as it is focused on policies beyond elections. It would therefore not make political statements that would be seen as “populist” to score political points, he said.

He also said Ikatan would not hesitate to back any party that agrees with it on policies that are good for the nation, regardless of whether that party is in Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat.

Ikatan is kick starting its recruitment drive today. Its website, Ikatan.org, already features a membership application, which is also available through its Facebook and Twitter accounts.