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.