Kedah Menteri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir was supposed to make a stand today on whether he backs his father or Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

But Kedah Umno decided he should not be compelled to do so and expressed support for both Najib and Mukhriz.

The menteri besar's most vocal critic, however, is dissatisfied. He hammered the son of Dr Mahathir Mohamad for being "weak".

Kedah Umno lawmaker Ahmad Lebai Sudin told Mukhriz that in politics, party rules must take precedence over family ties.

"He cannot differentiate between party and family. This is a problem. Once you are in the party, you must follow party rules.

"Mukhriz does not want to reveal his stand; this shows he is not supporting Najib," the Bukit Lada assemblyperson told Malaysiakini .

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Ahmad Lebai, who previously called on Mukhriz to resign , cited the example of brothers Khalid Samad and Shahrir who are PAS and Umno lawmakers respectively.

"Family is different. Like Khalid and Shahrir, one of them is PAS, the other is Umno.

"This is party, and parties have principles, what they (members) believe in," he added.

Ahmad Lebai ( right ) also disagreed with Kedah Umno's stand that it respected Mahathir, who has warned that Umno would be defeated in the next polls if Najib remained at the helm.

"How can they (Kedah Umno) say they respect Mahathir? This is wrong.

"When you say you respect Mahathir, it means you support Mahathir's statement to ask Najib to step down. How can they support Mahathir?" he asked.

Describing Mukhriz's leadership as "weak", he said the menteri besar’s vague stance would confuse the people of Kedah.

He warned that the situation would affect ties between the state government and federal government, with Kedah having to bear the consequences.

"Kedah is not a very rich state; it already has had a deficit budget for a long time," he said.