Many allegations can be thrown at Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, but at least he did not kill his party.

Communication and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak said this in response to former deputy prime minister Musa Hitam who claimed he was not silenced at the Umno general assembly in 1986 by then premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad even though they were at odds with each other.

“The impression Musa is trying to create is that Dr Mahathir is more democratic than Prime Minister Najib Razak. That is a misinterpretation of events,” Salleh said in a blog post last night.

According to the former Sabah chief minister, it was not that Mahathir did not want to silence Musa, but it was because Mahathir could not do so since Musa and Umno’s Team B at the time had the support of half of Umno.

Pointing out that Mahathir was worried that silencing them would only backfire on him, Salleh argued that the then party president did eventually silence Musa - by forming Umno Baru.

“Since Mahathir could not silence his critics in Umno, he formed a new Umno and left all his critics outside the party where they eventually had to form their own party, Semangat 46.

“Tun Musa ( photo ) and the Team B supporters [...] alleged that it was Mahathir who wanted Umno deregistered so that he could kick his critics out when the new party was formed. This was what Tun Musa and Team B said at that time,” added Salleh, a staunch Najib ally.

The minister reminded Musa that one of the main issues that Semangat 46 brought up against Umno Baru was that Mahathir did not respect democracy and freedom of speech.

This year’s Umno general assembly is set to commence next Tuesday.

Even before it kicked off, it has caused a furore with the ban on Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin from speaking at the general assembly.

Musa in his interview with The Malaysian Insider yesterday said that such a ban was unheard of and that at the general assembly in 1986, he sat in the assembly hall as deputy president without anybody protesting.

He pointed out that he was allowed to participate in the debates and was the second last person to deliver the assembly’s winding-up speech.

At that time, Musa had resigned as deputy prime minister citing differences with Mahathir, but remained Umno deputy president.