Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin came under fire again - this time from Gerakan Wanita and Pemuda at the party's 19th Wanita and Youth national delegates conference held in Kuala Lumpur today.

Khairy, who is Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's son-in-law, had stirred up a controversy when he warned that the minority Chinese community would take advantage of a weakened Umno to press for their rights.

This has resulted in fierce criticisms made by delegates at the recent MCA general meeting on his refusal to apologise over his controversial remarks.

Indirect references to Khairy were made with words like 'young' and 'future leader' in the speech made by Wanita chairperson Tan Lian Hoe.

"There is a young leader in a BN component party who raises sensitive and racial issues to make himself a hero for his political mileage."

"This has created uneasiness and anger among other communities. This kind of action should be stopped immediately. Respect should not be given to Umno only, it should also be given to other component parties," she declared.

'A real hero'

The Wanita leader then urged the people to reject such leaders, adding that such people should not be given any place in the BN's leadership.

Gerakan Youth Chief Mah Siew Keong also alluded an attack on Khairy during his speech made in English, Bahasa and Mandarin

"Future leaders must know the sensitivities and sentiments of all communities in the country when making comments about racial issues. They must not take the future of the communities for granted."

He agreed that the fight for one's own race is fair but this cannot be done by hurting other races.

"To me, a real hero is a hero to all communities. If you play up racial sentiments, you are not a hero to me," he asserted.

Mah admitted that there were times Gerakan Youth does not see eye to eye with Umno Youth.

"On a national level, I'll be honest to say that Gerakan Youth has had disagreements with several leaders from Umno Youth on some issues."

"But what is most important is that we can still sit around the same table to discuss (such matters)," he added.

Lighter moments

However, there were light moments at the meeting when Mah praised Umno Youth chief Hishammuddin Hussein in Mandarin .

He asked the delegates to give Hishammuddin a big applause for taking his time off to attend the party's youth meeting as a sign of respect for Gerakan.

He then encouraged Hishammuddin to direct Umno Youth towards moderation, not to raise racist issues and to contribute to other ethnic communities.

As the VIPs were seated in a row, Hishammuddin who looked bewildered by the mention of his name and the applause, passed a message down asking Mah as to what was happening.

Mah then cracked, saying: "This is Gerakan. We praise you in other languages, so that you don't know," to a clearly delighted audience.

He explained in Bahasa to Hishammuddin that he was being encouraged to be fair to every community in the country.

Mah later led the delegates to cheer 'Hidup Lim Keng Yaik' three times and turned to Gerakan Youth deputy chief Lim Si Pin who is Keng Yaik's son, saying, "let your father know we did that."

The three-day Gerakan national delegates conference which kicked off today with the meetings of the Wanita and Youth wings, will end on Sunday.