KLANG: Sacked Umno veteran Tan Sri Noh Omar has expressed his worries of seeing the party being fully populated by “yes men” one day.
Such a situation, he said, would just weaken the once dominant political party like what had happened to India’s Congress Party and Indonesia’s Golkar Party.
Speaking in an interview with Sinar Harian, which was streamed live on the Malay publication’s social media platforms, the six-term Tanjong Karang MP insisted that his sacking was unjust as he was not given a chance to defend himself.
He said he was issued with a show cause letter, which outlined three accusations, and was scheduled to present himself before the disciplinary board at 2.30pm yesterday, but the “punishment” came last Friday.
Noh, who was initially suspended for six years, had asked to be sacked instead.
Explaining his grounds, he said: “In this duration, there will be two party supreme council selections and the 16th General Election. How can I just be a mere spectator? So, it’s best to just sack me.”
Noh said the sacking of members was common and leaders had been sacked in Umno as well as other parties in the past, but it must be done in accordance with the party constitution and rules.
In Umno, he said party leaders could be sacked without being brought to the disciplinary board, but the matter must be openly discussed at the supreme council.
“Then, everyone in the council will have a say and if a unanimous decision cannot be made, balloting will be carried out to seek a majority decision.
“But the decision to sack me was made without adhering to this procedure,” he added.
According to Noh, an accusation levelled against him was that he backed his former aide Rosni Mastol to contest the Tanjong Karang seat as an independent in the 15th General Election (GE15) last November, after he was dropped by the party in favour of the constituency’s Wanita chief Datuk Habibah Mohd Yusof.
“I only knew about it (Rosni’s plans to contest for the seat) on the eve of the nomination day,” he said, adding that he could not do much as it was everyone’s democratic right to contest in the general election.
The Umno veteran also criticised the party’s leadership for not allowing a contest for the president and deputy president’s posts in the upcoming party polls.
He said the decision to disallow contests for the top two positions went against the party constitution which stated the contest for the post was open to all party members.
