FULL STATEMENT
Datuk Tengku Putra Haron Aminurashid Jumat, a hard core UMNO loyalist and former BN Johor State Assemblyman for Kempas, said the party must not support policies that harm public welfare and should actively oppose defectors in future elections.
UMNO, he said, should insist on being treated as an equal partner, not exploited or sidelined.
“If PKR or any member of the unity government accepts political defectors who have betrayed UMNO, then we should vacate our seats in the Cabinet while continuing to serve as vigilant overseers within the Government.
“We should also cease to be executively complicit in the administration’s policies if they are detrimental to the social welfare of the masses,” he said in support of Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin’s statement for its partners in the unity government not to accept party leaders and members looking to defect.
In his speech when opening the Batu Pahat Umno division delegates meeting today, Khaled had warned that doing so will undermine political stability and mutual trust.
Without naming names, he said such behaviour could weaken the coalition's cohesion and must not be encouraged.
Datuk Tengku Putra also said “if these defectors from UMNO contest in any upcoming by-election, regardless of government backing, UMNO must field our own candidates to challenge and defeat them at the polls. We cannot allow our party to be used as a stepping stone by ingrates seeking to rise politically in other parties.
“We are equal partners, not subordinates or concubines, to be exploited for the benefit of others in this government,” he said,
On May 30, UMNO Supreme Council member Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz announced he was leaving Umno and joining PKR.
He tendered his resignation as an Umno supreme council member, a Kota Raja division leader and a party member. He had been an Umno member since 1997.
Ends.
