Umno supreme council member Shahidan Kassim has asked party secretary-general Tengku Adnan Mansor to mediate the quarrel between former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

“If we want to wait for the issue to resolve naturally, it never will because the issue would drag on. So it is not good to leave it be.

“This is Umno. Umno’s strength comes from its esprit de corps all these years,” he told reporters today.

He said this today when asked to comment on Mahathir’s blog post earlier today, which said there should be investigations to determine who gave orders to kill Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu ( left ).

Najib’s name had been dragged into the murder scandal after his close confidante Abdul Razak Baginda was charged with abetting the murder but was acquitted on appeal.

Two officers, part of Najib's security detail at the time when he was deputy prime minister, were charged with the murder and eventually found guilty and sentenced to death.

Mahathir blog post is only the latest in a string of writings that are critical of Najib and his administration.

 

Shahidan said while Mahathir is careful to back his writings with facts, he may still be right or wrong and it is best not to discuss party affairs in the open but settle the matter “like brothers”.

“Umno’s enemies are taking advantage of the situation. As we know, the internal problems of Umno’s enemies are getting worse, so they would be happy the situation is the same in Umno.

“But we must remember that Umno is the main ruling party in this country. Umno needs to be strong so that people would respect it,” he added.

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