NEW YORK, TUES
Umno vice-president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has advised Umno members against making hasty decisions which can damage the party, the position of the Malays and the country.
He said they should act wisely and with courtesy so that the situation would not become worse.
Expressing shock at the resignation of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as an Umno member yesterday, the International Trade and Industry Minister said it was important for Umno members to look after the wellbeing of the party and the position of the Malays because the component parties of the Barisan Nasional (BN) would lose confidence in the coalition if Umno continued to face problems.
“If there is any message from the shocking move, what needs to be done is through the democratic process in the party through discussions and consensus.
“If they are dissatisfied, there are ways of resolving it such as through the party election process where members can make suggestions to resolve the crisis in Umno,” he told reporters after a seminar on “Malaysia-United States Business Opportunities”, here on Monday.
Muhyiddin said this when commenting on Dr Mahathir’s resignation as an Umno member because the former Umno president felt that the party could no longer function as a political party to champion the cause of the Malays which was the original objective in setting up the party.
Describing the situation as critical, Muhyiddin said Dr Mahathir’s resignation would have an impact on several quarters and as such, Umno members must be careful so that Malay solidarity was not affected.
“If everyone were to take similar action, there will be no one left in Umno. Who will then champion the cause of the Malays? What will happen to our leadership in the Barisan Nasional and government?” he said when asked if there were Umno members in Johor who would also resign following Dr Mahathir’s resignation.
He said there must be a mechanism to resolve the problem so that it would not develop into a prolonged crisis.
Commenting on the statement by former deputy prime minister and Umno deputy president Tun Musa Hitam who described the decision as “the removal of the thorn in the flesh”, Muhyiddin said: “It is Tun Musa Hitam’s (personal) opinion. There are still many Umno members who respect Dr Mahathir’s views.” Muhyiddin, who had led a trade and investment mission to the United States which ended on Monday, said Umno needed a strong leadership to end the political crisis.
Meanwhile in KUALA LUMPUR, Gerakan acting president Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, who expressed suprise over Dr Mahathir’s decision to quit Umno, believed that the party had the strength and experiece to handle the sudden incident.
He believed that the Umno leadership, under the stewardship of Abdullah, would have the wisdom and experience to handle the situation with the support of party members.
“After all, it had happenned before in Umno history…as in the history of other political parties,” he told Bernama on the sideline of World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) 2008, here today.
Gerakan, however, hoped that the sudden development would not affect the political stability of the country as a whole, he said.
Asked if the development would affect foreign investors’ interest, he said the investors might be “a bit concerned and confused” in the short term.
However, in the long-run, Malaysia’s competitiveness would be determined by its resources and infrastructure, he added.
Article source:
