Sarawak is the land of the hornbills. West Malaysia has become the land of the red-shirts.

And Umno, the benefactor of the red-shirts, is now claiming it has distanced itself from the red-shirts. But the ‘distancing’ is mere rhetoric without any visible meaning.

If Umno could sack a few ministers for the ‘misbehaviour’ of asking forbidden questions, why has Umno not sacked the leader of the red-shirts, Jamal Md Yunos, head of the Sungai Besar Umno division?

Jamal’s taking of the law into his own hands, such as blocking roads and claiming the blocked areas to be the territory of the red-shirts which the yellow-shirts must not get near or try to pass; his street demonstrations without complying with the same law that Bersih is required to comply with; his open threats to demolish buildings and defend the government even if he becomes bathed in blood, etc, has brought much disrepute, nay even disgrace, to Umno which he represents, by virtue of being head of an Umno division. Or, has he brought honour to Umno?

Even if he swears, or the ministers do so, that he is not acting for and on behalf of Umno, he is not just an ordinary member of Umno but an important official in Umno, being head of a division. That makes him synonymous with Umno. As the Malays say, “mahu tak mahu” (whether you like it or not), to the public, he is part of Umno, and he behaves like a de facto PM of Malaysia, as said by Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

What does the constitution of Umno say about members who bring disrepute to the organisation?

Is Umno an organisation that does not impose a code of conduct on its members?

So Umno information chief Annuar Musa, Umno Youth head Khairy Jamaluddin and others who claim Umno has distanced itself from Jamal should put their words into actions by sacking Jamal from Umno.

Until and unless Jamal is sacked from the party, no amount of ‘distancing’ rhetoric will reflect honesty in their statements. On the contrary, it reflects hypocrisy.

The yardstick to judge whether the red-shirts have tacit approval of the government or not is very simple. Let us say the red-shirts are in the shoes of the yellow-shirts and go about campaigning like the latter. And let us say members of an opposition party (blue, white or orange shirts) are in the shoes of the red-shirts and go about blocking roads, etc. Would the blue, white or orange shirts enjoy the same immunity from the law like the red-shirts?

If Umno is honest about distancing itself from the red-shirts, then it must sack their leader Jamal and enforce the law as if the red-shirts were from an opposition party.

Until we see such action, mahu tak mahu, the ‘distancing’ statements are merely a smokescreen meant to fool Malaysians. Enough of that.