Umno supreme council member Mahdzir Khalid said stern action should be taken against Malaysians who leaked information to outside parties.
Mahdzir, who is Education Minister, said their act could invite foreign intervention into the country’s affairs and as such, they should be punished for tarnishing the country’s image.
“We do not want outside parties to interfere in the country’s affairs, if they do, and we leak information, it would destroy the nation.
“We are talking about the country’s sovereignty, nationhood, something which cannot be given up to others.
“We should seek (those who leaked information) and punish them,” he said when met by reporters after officially opening the Maran Umno delegates meeting today.
Also present was Deputy Human Resource Minister Ismail Abdul Muttalib, who is the Maran Umno divisional leader.
Mahdzir said Malaysia, as a democratic and sovereign country, did not need foreign intervention to determine its leaders and how it should be administered.
“It is a question of honour, of the country and leadership, the prime minister (Najib Abdul Razak) was elected by the people through a legitimate process, the general election, so as Malaysians we must have the solidarity and strength to support our prime minister,” he added.
UMNO’s desperate talk is taking a sinister turn.
Instead of sacking their PM who has been caught stealing billions from the people and then blatantly lying about it, they are seeking out whistleblowers to ‘punish them’ for leaking the information.
Mr Muttalib is blaming those whistleblowers for ‘tarnishing the country’s image’ rather than the high level thieves who actually stole the money and then spent it in an orgy of embarrassing excess in nightclubs the world over.
In the process he is squaring little Malaysia up against countries like the United States, whom he accuses of ‘interfering’ in his sovereign country by revealing his boss’s dirty secrets and impounding stolen assets.
In fact, it wasn’t local whistleblowers who shopped Najib, it was Jho Low’s behaviour that gave the game away. Later shocked foreigners tipped off the DOJ that the outrageous sums being spent round Vegas and Hollywood had been stolen.
That is against US law, so Malaysian political thieves should heed their own words and not interfere in the US by breaking their national laws against money-laundering.
Indeed, the more that these UMNO side-kicks stick up for Najib the more the rest of the country, their followers and the rest of the world realise they must be as dirty and compromised as he is.
Any ‘honourable’ party would have asked such a tainted leader to step aside for the sake of the country. Instead UMNO are adopting a bunker mentality and accusing the rest of the world of ‘interfering’ in their perceived right to rig elections and then pillage funds.
Malaysia needs to be part of the global economy to keep its level of prosperity. Investors do not come to countries where leaders attack foreigners and issue witch-hunts against critics of corruption – UMNO are making Malaysia into a rogue state, just to protect their local crime boss, Najib.