PUTRAJAYA: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has refuted claims that he is on the “Opposition’s side”, stressing his love and loyalty remained strongly with Umno, the country, and his religion and race.
“I have never taken sides with the Opposition. I love my party dearly but this does not mean that I support the party leadership,” he said at a dialogue session with the Malaysian Concerned Citizens Council ad-hoc committee (Prihatin) at the Perdana Leadership Foundation yesterday.
The former prime minister said that when he quarrelled with the late first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, it was because he loved the party and wanted to save Umno.
He said that while loyalty to the party should remain steadfast, members must be brave enough to point out leaders' mistakes so they would not be repeated and “bring about destruction and downfall, and weaken the party”.
“Leaders on the other hand, must not have this misconception that support for Umno means support for them too. When there is victory, leaders think it is because the people support them when the support may just have been for the party.”
Unlike other races, particularly the Chinese, who would use their votes to send a message or make a point, the Malays, he claimed, would blindly support political parties, whether Umno or PAS.
[More at http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/8/16/nation/18604951&sec=nation]
Thursday, August 16, 2007
I’m not with the Opposition, says Dr M - The Star
Cabinet rejects apology from Negaraku rapper - The Star
By Loh Foon Fong
KUALA LUMPUR: The Cabinet has not accepted student Wee Meng Chee’s apology for the furore caused by his Negaraku rap videoclip on video-sharing web portal YouTube.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz said the Cabinet had decided yesterday that they were not in the position to forgive him and that “the law would have to take its course”.
“The offence was not against the Prime Minister or ministers concerned but against the nation,” Nazri told reporters after the launch of the International Conference on Media and Information Warfare: A Global Challenge of the 21st Century here.
“If he had committed an offence, which I think was an offence, then we must allow the Attorney General to investigate and decide whether to take him to court,” he said.
Wee had on Tuesday apologised for the parody and agreed to remove the videoclip from his blog.
[More at http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/8/16/nation/20070816152355&sec=nation]
