Stay out of Umno affairs, Azalina tells Kit Siang

Umno Supreme Council member says Lim Kit Siang has no right to call suspension of Muhyiddin as UMNO deputy president a “purge”.

(FMT) – Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman Said today warned DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang not to get involved in Umno’s internal affairs.

“Stay away from Umno’s internal affairs and do not question the loyalty and unwavering support of any of the Umno leaders towards the president (Najib Razak),” she said in a statement.

Saying that Lim had no locus standi to question her allegation that there exists a “high-level” conspiracy to topple Najib, Azalina pointed to the fact that he, and his “cohorts” in the DAP had for months called for the ousting of the prime minister.

“As a senior parliamentarian, it is rather sad that Lim, the opposition as a whole and many others, in the case of the prime minister, can conveniently neglect one of the most sacred principles in the criminal justice system, holding that one is innocent until proven guilty.”

Azalina, an Umno Supreme Council member, said Lim had no right to describe the suspension of Muhyiddin Yassin as Umno deputy president as a “purge” when he was not a stranger to such an act within his party.

In a statement last weekend, Lim had suggested that Azalina might have revealed an official secret by making reference to “a charge sheet said to be drawn up in May 2015 – before the so-called Special Task Force was formed, before the investigation was started in June 2015.”

Azalina’s reference was made in a rebuttal of an earlier statement by Muhyiddin that Abdul Gani Patail, then the attorney-general, had presented evidence about “a criminal act” in the movement of funds from a company associated with 1MDB, and implicating the prime minister.

Lim had said that as far as he knew,”This is the first time information about ‘a charge sheet said to be drawn up in May 2015′ had been made in the public domain” and obliquely suggested it was an official secret.

To this Azalina responded by saying, “The idea that he was unaware of this (the alleged charge sheet being made public) is unacceptable given that on July 30, 2015, Sarawak Report uploaded what it claimed was a draft charge sheet of a corruption charge against the prime minister in relation to SRC International Sdn Bhd, a former subsidiary of 1MDB, even though the investigation into this affair was only completed in December 2015.

“It is still available on public domain regardless of its authenticity.”