In a sarcastic broadside against Najib Abdul Razak, former information minister Zainuddin Maidin has asked the prime minister to disregard Umno's views.

"Go to hell ( pergi jahanam ) with the voices of the Malays, Umno, Perkasa, Isma and voices of other Malay NGOs," he said in a brief blog posting today.

Zainuddin snidely said that such groups were beneath Najib.

"These voices are all extremist, bigoted, stupid and not on the same level as datuk's (Najib) Western Liberalism thinking," he said.

Zainuddin has consistently criticised Najib's move to abolish the Internal Security Act as well as the plan to repeal of the Sedition Act, sarcastically said the premier should push for total freedom.

"Open up whatever that can still be opened, we must be as free as we can," he said.

His latest outburst stemmed from Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Idris Jala's criticism of using the Sedition Act on academics.

Zainuddin said Najib should listen to the likes of Idris instead of his party grassroots.

"Najib must listen to him because he is an influential cabinet minister in the financial world and has been listed as the top 60 most influential individuals in corporate banking.

"Ignore the voices of the Malays, ignore the voices of Umno members, ignore the voices of Muslim...," said the strong supporter of former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Otherwise, Zainuddin sarcastically added, Najib would lose support from the non-Malay community and the world stage.

Several government ministers have defended the government's recent crackdown on political opponents under the Sedition Act.

However, Idris, who is only one of few ministers without a political party, yesterday broke ranks and spoke out against the sedition prosecution against law professor Azmi Sharom.

Azmi was on Sept 2 charged with sedition over his legal opinion on the 2009 Perak constitutional crisis which saw the ouster of the Pakatan Rakyat-led state government by BN through defections.