Wake up, Bung Moktar tells Umno chiefs

Party crisis must be addressed by leadership after Mahathir's wave of attacks.

ROMPIN: Outspoken Sabah Umno MP Bung Moktar Radin has given Umno’s top leadership a wake-up call.

Speaking at a Felcra event in the midst of the current by-election campaign here, Bung Moktar said the party’s internal crisis must be addressed by the leaders.

“At the by-election, we see how Umno has been slammed from all corners of the party. The latest criticism takes the cake, that is the open criticisms by the former leader of Umno, Tun Dr Mahathir, who has inevitably caused ripples within the party itself,” he said in remarks quoted by Astro Awani.

Dr Mahathir has launched a wave of criticisms against Najib Razak’s leadership of Umno and the Federal Government in recent months on a range of issues including the debt-ridden government company 1Malaysia Development Bhd and the newly-implemented Goods and Services Tax.

“Let Umno leaders address the crisis,” Bung Mokhtar said, while urging grassroot Umno members to give undivided support. “That’s the task of the people at the lower level,” he said. “If they start making decisions, top leadership doesn’t mean anything anymore.”

When asked about Dr Mahathir’s criticisms, Bung Moktar waved them off, describing them metaphorically as a father giving advice to his son, albeit sternly. “We must take it as a lesson,” he said, according to Astro Awani.

He urged the rakyat to have full confidence in the government’s implementation of GST, and said he believed most problems would be resolved in the next six months.