Blue-blooded politician Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has seen red after an English daily published an article about his supposed retirement.

In a strongly-worded statement, the former Umno vice-president and finance minister lambasted the newspaper for allegedly 'manufacturing' the report.

ku li tengku razaleigh interview 241106 reluctant "How kind of the Star to editorialise some words their reporter overheard while I was speaking to a Singapore news channel into a sweet little retirement story for me, complete with a helpful coda about my retiring into harmless 'constructive' political commentary.

"I am sorry to disappoint these aspiring scriptwriters but news of my departure is premature," he said.

The 72-year-old Gua Musang MP, who is of royal descent, also said that among the things he is pushing for, "in my undead condition", is the repeal of the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA).

By protecting a small number of licensee newspapers from competition and keeping them leashed to political masters, Razaleigh said the PPPA has "given us lapdog journalism".

"I made my call for the repeal of the PPPA in a speech on Friday, a message that one mainstream newspaper did not find as newsworthy as the observation that I am going through the novel process of 'ageing' (as opposed to just being old) and the manufactured news that I have given up an option some people find inconvenient.

"I may be a little too 'old' to be patronised by supine newspaper editors."

'The nearly man'

In its report yesterday under the heading 'Ageing Ku Li gives up on Umno top post', Star stated that - after three decades of mounting challenges for the Umno presidency - Razaleigh has decided to give up the fight finally.

The daily quoted him as saying, "I am too old. Too old," when asked on the sidelines of the recent Umno special general assembly whether he would consider contesting the post, now that the quota system has been abolished.

The report said Razaleigh is likely to be featured in the annals of Umno history as the 'nearly man'.

"He came within a whisker of becoming party president at the infamous 1987 party elections, which eventually saw the party deregistered by the courts and the imposition of a quota system," it said.

"Razaleigh had also mooted a campaign in the recent party elections to contest the presidency against both Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and current president Najib Abdul Razak. He could only muster one nomination which was from his own Gua Musang Umno division."

The report also quoted Razaleigh as saying that, while he is an Umno loyalist, he does not discount the possibility of joining another party if Umno does not heed the call for structural changes.