Malaysia's ruling party may fire election 'turncoats'
Malaysia's ruling party may fire election 'turncoats'
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia's ruling party is considering sacking large numbers of "turncoat" members who worked for the opposition during last month's elections, reports said on Thursday.
The Sun newspaper said UMNO's disciplinary and management committee reviewed allegations against more than 100 "traitors" -- including one who allegedly tried to sabotage Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's nomination papers.
Khalil Yaakob, Information Minister and secretary general of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), declined to say how many members were involved.
Khalil, quoted by the official Bernama news agency after Wednesday's committee meeting, said the number reported was "quite many but we cannot say the actual number because we have to investigate first why they were being alleged (of being involved).
"They have to be proven because we consider all these as allegations, we have to counter-check so that they were not being victimized," he said.
Khalil said the discipline committee had received many reports of party members supporting the opposition.
In the most serious cases some UMNO members had become opposition candidates, he said. Others were accused of "actively taking part" in opposition campaigning by speaking at rallies or distributing pamphlets.
Khalil said the committee's recommendations for action against turncoats would be discussed at the party's supreme council meeting on Sunday.
Newspapers quoted him as saying they could be sacked from UMNO, which was founded in 1946 and is the oldest of the existing parties. It has 2.7 million members but hundreds were sacked last year after the controversy over the sacking and jailing of deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim.
The Sun quoted Khalil as saying Mahathir himself would raise the case at the supreme council meeting of an official who allegedly tried to sabotage his election bid in Kubang Pasu in the northern state of Kedah.
Mahathir last Friday complained that someone he did not identify had deliberately made mistakes in his nomination papers.
The committee meeting was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in his capacity as UMNO vice president carrying out the duties of party deputy president.
He has yet to be confirmed as party deputy president, a position which would make him Mahathir's presumed successor. Party elections will be held next year.
Mahathir's National Front coalition, of which UMNO is the dominant party, won 148 out of 193 parliamentary seats in the Nov. 29 polls. But UMNO's share of seats fell to 72 from 88 and it lost control of the state assembly in Terengganu.
Meantime, the Islamic rulers of a northeast Malaysian state on Thursday told an allied Chinese-dominated party there were no immediate plans to introduce a controversial tax on non-Muslims.
Nik Aziz Nik Mat, chief minister of Kelantan which is ruled by the Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), told a delegation from the Democratic Action Party (DAP) his government would await the outcome of a study on kharaj by the PAS rulers of neighboring Terengganu.
PAS, which already held the state assembly in Kelantan, captured Terengganu from the national ruling party in the polls.
Its proposal to collect a kharaj tax from non-Muslims in Terengganu, to match the tithes which Muslims pay, met with strong protests.
The opposition DAP, and Chinese-dominated parties in the nationally ruling coalition, warned the Islamic party to scrap its plan. They said it would burden non-Muslims and scare off investors.
The DAP delegation visited Terengganu on Wednesday, where chief minister Abdul Hadi Awang assured them that kharaj would not be forced on non-Muslim businesses.
In what DAP chairman Lim Kit Siang called a "friendly and fruitful" meeting, Hadi also said non-Muslims would be fully consulted during a study of the proposed tax.