Forget about “boycott”, the buzzword in the country right now appears to be “house arrest!” Thanks to the straight-shooting Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh who is never too far away from controversy, this time it involves his “mentor” ex-PM Najib Razak, who of course, is serving jail time in Kajang.
Curiously, although Najib was granted a “generous” partial clemency by the Pardons Board in January 2024, whereby his jail term was reduced to 6 years from 12 years and the fine reduced from RM210mil to RM50mil, yet the whole episode still appears to be shrouded in mystery.
The latest intrigue now seems to centre around a purported “supplementary order” issued by the previous king who presided over the said board where allegedly His Majesty had decreed for Najib to be moved out from jail and placed under house arrest.
This explosive matter surfaced, out of the blue, after Umno president Zahid Hamidi had affirmed an affidavit recently confirming that he saw the contentious document with the royal seal albeit on the phone of a fellow party leader Tengku Zafrul Aziz.
However, just like in the case of the sacrilegious “Allah-inscribed” socks where Akmal had hastily launched a boycott of KK Mart outlets after the controversial items were found being sold in three of the popular convenience store’s outlets, this time he seemed to have pounced on the alleged supplementary order document issued by the king - even before its existence has been verified. In fact, it is not clear whether “house arrest” is even permitted under the country’s laws.
Shockingly, this time the uncompromising Umno Youth chief’s target was none other than the prime minister himself - though the latter was not a member of the Pardons Board.
In fact, according to a news report Akmal had criticised PM Anwar for stating that deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had backed Najib’s attempt to serve the remainder of his prison sentence under house arrest in his capacity as Umno president; he further chided PMX by highlighting that what the people wanted from the government was an explanation as to why it did not abide by the royal decree, not an excuse!
This inevitably drew a sharp rebuke from PKR Youth chief Adam Adli who pointed out to Dr Akmal that his comments were an insult to Anwar, who is the PKR president.
Adam, who is also the country's deputy youth and sports minister “reminded” the firebrand Melaka state executive councillor that the latter was a youth leader in a party that was part of the government (not in the opposition) and that creating a rift between the coalition partners will not do any good to both parties.
He further “lectured” the Umno Youth chief that just as PKR Youth had agreed to respect the Umno president by carefully choosing their words when offering their views, shouldn't the Merlimau MP also show the same kind of respect for the PKR president, who happens to be the prime minister?
Surely Dr Akmal would be aware that Adli, his current counterpart in the unity government was the fiery young man from the opposition camp who back in 2011 had audaciously pulled down the flag depicting the image of Najib outside Umno’s office! It was believed to be a symbolic gesture that the then-prime minister will be brought down, which eventually did come true in 2018!
While Adli, the current Hang Tuah Jaya MP, may have mellowed down a lot now and is no longer the aggressive young man that he used to be, perhaps, this is something the young and often temperamental Umno Youth leader should learn from the former; after all, aren’t they both serving the same unity government - and the same prime minister?
Information Source: FMT
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