Sacking for saboteurs

By Nik Imran Abdullah and Sulaiman Jaafar | news@nst.com.my

RUN-UP TO POLLS: Barisan teams to monitor those who work against coalition

KOTA BARU: BARISAN Nasional will sack component party members found to have worked against its interests in the run-up to the next general election.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also BN deputy chairman, said summary dismissal would be meted out to stop them from causing further damage and affecting the BN’s chances to win in the election.

As such, he said, BN would set up monitoring teams comprising trustworthy and independent people to check on the problem ahead of the election.

“Those appointed to the teams will move around incognito to monitor seats where some party workers may likely work against BN.”

He said BN was aware of the problem and it had been identifying seats with a history of sabotage by its own party members.

Muhyiddin added that all BN component party leaders had agreed that quick action should be taken to prevent saboteurs from damaging BN’s chances in the election.

“When campaigning period gets under way, we will sack them on the spot if we find that they have sabotaged the party.

“We cannot allow them to move around, spreading rumours to bring us down within the one or two weeks of the campaigning period.

"Before it gets too late and out of hand, we have to take such a drastic action," he said after attending a Hari Raya Aidilfitri open house and opening the Kota Baru Umno divisional delegates' meeting at a school complex in Wakaf Mek Zainab, here, yesterday.

Muhyiddin said the saboteurs could cause the defeat of BN even in seats where BN candidates had strong chances of winning.

BN, he said, had records of seats with history of party members betraying its candidates through sabotage.

In an immediate response, Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said an independent team was a "natural consequence" against saboteurs.

"I fully support it. Otherwise, people will think we are spewing rhetoric."

MCA Youth chief Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong lauded the move, saying this was strong evidence that BN would not tolerate traitors.

"There is no point in having enemies from within," he said, adding that members of the team should be vetted to ensure that they did not hold any grudges against party members.

Umno information chief Datuk Ahmad Maslan said the party's disciplinary committee had been given the mandate to take stern action against saboteurs.

On BN's chances in Kelantan, Muhyiddin said the state BN should recognise the challenges it faced to wrest back the state from Pas.

"We have a chance of taking back the state but it is not an easy task."

He said a wind of change was sweeping through Kelantan as the voters had shifted their support for BN. Based on intelligence data, he said, voters in the state were ready to elect BN as the current state government leaders had failed to meet the people's expectations on various issues. Additional reporting by Sharifah Mahsinah and Sean Augustin

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin helping the public to delicacies at a Hari Raya Aidilfitri gathering at a school complex in Wakaf Mek Zainab in Kota Baru, Kelantan, yesterday. Pic by Syamsi Suhaimi

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Sacking for saboteurs

RUN-UP TO POLLS: Barisan teams to monitor those who work against coalition

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