Division leader sacked in 2009 hits out at ‘double standards’ by Umno

A former Umno division leader who was stripped of his post and sacked over court charges in 2009 has hit out at what he calls “double standards”, citing a lack of similar action against the party president and top leadership.

Former Labuan division chief Suhaili Abdul Rahman said the party should apply Article 10.10 of the Umno constitution against leaders currently facing criminal charges in court, as had been done to him 12 years ago.

“This means Umno is practising double standards because that rule applies to everyone. It was used in 2009. Is this fair to other members?” he said in a report by Utusan Malaysia today.

“Does the rule apply only to ordinary people like myself? What about the Supreme Council members, the secretary and the president?”

Suhaili added that the court case against him in 2009 had nothing to do with accusations of corruption, abuse of power or theft.

Suhaili was dismissed by the Umno Supreme Council in 2009 over a charge of making a false statement.

Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is currently facing 47 charges of criminal breach of trust, corruption and money laundering involving tens of millions of ringgit in funds from Yayasan Akalbudi.

Meanwhile, former president Najib Razak, who is also Pekan Umno division chief, has been convicted and sentenced to 12 years in jail along with a RM210 million fine over seven charges of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering linked to RM42 million in SRC International funds.

Najib also has dozens of other corruption charges linked to the 1MDB scandal pending.

Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan is also on trial for allegedly failing to declare RM2 million that he received from Najib.

Putrajaya Umno chief Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor meanwhile faces a 12-year jail sentence and RM2 million fine for a charge of accepting a RM2 million bribe from a businessman.

Zahid and Najib are at the forefront of a group of Umno leaders facing charges in court who have launched attacks on the Perikatan Nasional government led by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, which came to power last year on the back of support from the Malay party.

Suhaili said he was the first and last Umno leader against whom Article 10.10 of the party constitution had been used despite many others being embroiled in criminal charges.

“I was not given any space to explain and my post was not restored even though my case was settled,” he told Utusan Malaysia.

“Twelve years have passed since then, but today, let everyone know the truth about the injustice of Umno’s cause.”