Irked Rais Hussin chastises Umno veep for Bersatu-bashing

A congratulatory message on Twitter by Umno vice-president Khaled Nordin to MIC for opting not to join the Perikatan Nasional coalition has elicited an angry reaction from Bersatu central committee member Rais Hussin.

The testy exchange began when Khaled, who is also a former Johor menteri besar, congratulated MIC for taking the decision not to participate in the registration of the PN coalition.

"PN is a (coalition) that originates from Bersatu, and when the latter decided to open up its membership to all races that really means that MIC is not," added Khaled.

This provoked an angry reaction from Rais (above) who reminded Khaled that Umno was back in federal power due to Bersatu's decision to leave the Pakatan Harapan coalition which was elected in May 2018.

"You have been attacking Bersatu non-stop. You (should) appreciate that Bersatu enabled Umno to be back in power. Obviously, Umno, too, enabled PN at the time with tears of joy," said Rais.

He called on Khaled (below) to stop targeting his own coalition ally.

"Why the non-stop attack on Bersatu? Strengthen the coalition to serve the people. Enough of non-stop politicking," wrote Rais.

The future of Bersatu and Umno as coalition partners has come under scrutiny ever since Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said his party would not join PN but would focus on Muafakat Nasional and BN instead.

Even though Bersatu was then touted to join Muafakat, Umno's Malay-Muslim unity alliance with PAS, the waters became murkier when Bersatu opened its doors to non-Malay members, partly to accommodate the supporters of former PKR deputy president Azmin Ali.

Two weeks ago, when Bersatu joined Muafakat, Khaled (above) had said: "PPBM (Bersatu) can join Muafakat Nasional. However, its inclusion in MN should not be used to urge Umno to join Perikatan."

In June, Khaled had also warned Bersatu that Umno would not be made use of as a lifeline by any party or individuals.

Yesterday, Malaysiakini reported that in a letter to the RoS, MIC secretary-general M Asojan said his party initially agreed to join PN on the assumption that Umno and BN would join too.

“But because Umno said it has no intention of joining PN on July 29, the decision made by the MIC supreme council on July 10 is not applicable.

“Hence until a new decision is reached by MIC’s supreme council, MIC’s PN pro-tem membership is not applicable,” Asojan was quoted as saying.

 - Mkini