Umno's Kg Mutiara branch, which held its annual general meeting in a coffeeshop in Penang yesterday with just 22 out of its 357 members attending, has lashed out at the state leadership for ignoring its members and for treating them like "stephildren".

Branch chief Rose Akhmar Ahmed in his closing speech expressed disappointment over the way party members have been treated since 2008. The branch had not even been invited for any of Umno's programmes and activities since that year, he said.

He lamented that the Kg Mutiara branch leadership, including himself, was not even told of Prime Minister Najib Razak's visit to Penang recently, during which Najib, who is also Umno president, made several stops, including addressing a huge crowd in Balik Pulau.

"We feel that we have been ignored and not appreciated; nobody has contacted us or even asked to discuss issues with us, even though we have written several letters to them, and copied them to the prime minister," Rose Akhmar ( right ) said.

"Even if they are too busy to read the letters, they can delegate the job to one of their officers... why ignore us like this?" he added.

Asked whether he knew about any reason to malign members of the branch, which comers under the party's Bukit Bendera division, Rose Akhmar said it was probably because he had been critical of the division's former chief, Ahmad Ismail.

Rose Akhmar came into the limelight in August last year when he lodged a police report in Butterworth, alleging that the state Umno leadership had failed to inform members about the Bukit Bendera division AGM.

At the AGM in Penang, the controversial Ahmad was had been given a hero's welcome and showered with heroic titles.

The Bukit Bendera Umno division has been plagued with controversy ever since Ahmad ( left ) was suspended in 2008 for making derogatory remarks against the Chinese community.

Rose Akhmar had then questioned the role of Umno in Penang, saying many of the branch members had left to join rival parties in the opposition, including PAS and PKR.

Many others had lost faith in Umno, and preferred to stay away from political activities, he said.

He added that at the branch's AGM yesterday, the fact that just 22 members attended indicated that the rest of them had given up on the party.

However, the branch was still valid, he stressed, as members continued to pay fees and meetings, despite low turnouts, continued to take place.

"How are we to wrest Penang back from the DAP if this continues to happen?" he asked, and challenged the state Umno leadership to prove that it had not sidelined him by not inviting him or his committee members to programmes organised by the party.

"If they can prove that they have invited me and I was the one who ignored their invitations, then I am willing to resign," Rose Akhmar said.

"I do not get any project or money from anyone, so that's why I am not afraid to challenge them, unlike those who probably get something, they are afraid to talk."

He urged Najib "to do something about the situation in Penang", saying he had learnt that several Umno branches did not hold their AGMs but continued operating as normal.

He claimed that the party had such massive control of the newspapers, such as Utusan Malaysia, that journalists who wanted to write about his story were transferred out of Penang.

Another Umno member, Zainol Shaikh Ariffin ( above ), from the Air Itam branch, concurred with Rose Akhmar, saying that party members were sidelined for being "criticial and vocal".

Zainol said he too had learnt that several party branches in the state had not conducted their AGMs and that the state leadership did not take action against them