A member of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) has urged congress president Zainal Rampak to review his retraction of the "gentleman's agreement" he made with his deputy Mohamed Shafie BP Mammal to step down last January.

The National Union of Telekom Employees (NUTE) made the call after its national executive council unanimously tabled a protest motion against Zainal's controversial action.

In a statement yesterday, NUTE general secretary Mohd Jafar Abd Majid said the union thought Zainal's about-turn was a 'betrayal' of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) he signed with Mohamed Shafie.

Zainal ( photo ) reneged o­n the agreement in late last December and did not step down as president to make way for Mohamed Shafie o­n Jan 1 this year despite stating he would do so in the MOU.

Immoral decision

Said Mohd Jafar: "(The exco) urges him to rethink his immoral decision for the sake of restoring the trust and confidence of MTUC affiliates."

He said the exco which convened o­n April 4 had discussed and debated at length the controversy before arriving at the unanimous decision against Zainal.

On Feb 18 last year, Zainal and Mohamed Shafie made a pact that if they retained their posts at the triennial delegates conference, the former shall relinquish the presidency to the latter at the end of that year.

In exchange, Mohamed Shafie was to withdraw from challenging Zainal for the top post. This was supposed to be a win-win strategy for both.

But true to form, Zainal reneged o­n the agreement and announced that he will retain the presidency of the union umbrella body until 2004, backed by his allies who argued that the MoU was not a legal document.

Mohd Jafar said Zainal's unexpected announcement was "regrettable".

He said it was unfortunate that Zainal submitted to the wishes of the small group of supporters who did not want him to leave office, and made the "shocking unilateral announcement last Dec 21 without discussing it with Mohamed Shafie first".

"His action also seems to mock an agreement based o­n mutual consent but was later denied in self-interest."

'No comment'

When contacted today, Zainal repeatedly said "no comment" to several questions posed.

"Go and refer to the joint statement by Mohamed Shafie and myself o­n March 6, and you will find the answer to all your questions in there," he said.

(On March 6, an unhappy Mohamed Shafie had told reporters that he had no choice but to accept Zainal's decision.)

Pressed further o­n what he meant by "no comment" to the NUTE statement today and whether he would review his decision, Zainal would o­nly say: "Why are you asking all these questions when you are not involved in the matter? Don't you understand when I say no comments?

"Don't put words into my mouth. Just go and refer to that statement."