Former minister Zainuddin Maidin warned that the red shirt rally may end up being cancelled if former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad actually turned up.

He said this in response to Sungai Besar Umno division chief Jamal Md Yunos who had challenged Mahathir to be present at the rally on Sept 16 if he was "Malay enough".

Mahathir, who showed up on both days of the Bersih 4 rally in Kuala Lumpur to call for Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's resignation over his scandals, had said he disagreed with the red shirts’ counter-rally.

The former premier, however, did not wear yellow and at the impromptu press conference, clarified that he was there to support the people.

"If Mahathir announces that he will attend, then the rally may end up being cancelled like the Nothing2Hide forum when the organisers realised he came," said Zainuddin in a forum today.

Zainuddin was referring to the embarrassing cancellation of a dialogue on 1MDB featuring Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak in June, after Mahathir turned up.

With Najib absent, Mahathir had proceeded to take over the event where he delivered a scathing speech against Najib before he was stopped by the police.

Zainuddin urged Jamal ( photo ) to make a similar invitation for Najib, who is also the Umno president, to attend the rally in Kuala Lumpur so that Mahathir can likewise attend to make his case against Najib.

"The Umno president should prove he is a pure Umno member and a courageous Bugis warrior," he said.

Mahathir is going all out in demanding that Najib resign as prime minister and Umno president.

Najib is being criticised over his handling of state-owned fund 1MDB which is struggling to repay its US$11 billion debt and also the presence of RM2.6 billion in his personal bank accounts.

Najib had denied taking government funds for personal gain while his supporters claim the money was a political donation.