The Umno supreme council meeting today agreed to accept the Kongres India Muslim Malaysia (Kimma) as an affiliate member of Umno with several privileges.

Umno president Najib Abdul Razak said among the privileges were that the party would be invited as an observer at the Umno general meeting and divisional meetings if the party had members in the area concerned.

“But they cannot be involved in Umno management,” he said at the media conference after chairing the meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

Najib, who is also the Prime Minister, said Kimma had also agreed to support all policies and decision taken by the government and supreme council.

“They agreed to continue to assist in strengthening the position of Umno and the Barisan Nasional,” he said.

In another development, Najib criticised the action of certain groups who spread short messaging service (SMS) with seditious undertone claiming that all action taken by the government on sensitive issues such as the decision on the incidents pertaining to a church and surau were selective and based on racial considerations.

He said the supreme council took note of the spread of the SMS which were said to be deliberately raised to stoke sentiments of certain groups against the government.

He said that in matters concerning the country’s law involving any mention of racial sentiments that violated the law including destroying property and so on, action would certainly be taken against anybody concerned.

“So, no one should manipulate the issue according to racial perspective as though we adopt selective prosecution in this matter,” he said.

The meeting today also agreed on the schedule for the Umno general assembly from Oct 19 to 23 as decided by the management committee.

- Bernama