Cheras Umno chief Syed Ali Alhabshee today urged Umno members not to be influenced by the opposition to hate the country's leaders.

He accused the opposition of fuelling the current situation to incite hatred against the government and Umno.

"They try to pit Umno leaders against each other and manipulate a number of issues," he said in a blog post today.

Syed Ali's remarks came amid several scandals plaguing the country including the RM2.6 billion deposited into Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's personal bank accounts.

Najib has also dropped his party deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin as deputy prime minister for criticising him on the handling of the 1MDB affair.

This has caused some unhappiness within Umno's ranks with Langkawi Umno delegate Anina Saaduddin accusing Najib in crude language of lying to Umno .

PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli appeared to capitalise on this unhappiness today, accusing Najib of proritising his personal interest over the voice of Umno grassroots.

Umno will overcome

Syed Ali urged Umno members to filter through the information they received on social media as there were those out to destroy Umno.

"Their strategy is to destroy Umno and diminish Malay political power in this country," he said.

In particular, Syed Ali said DAP wanted to see a split in Umno like how it had sided with a splinter group from PAS.

While conceding the ruling party faced political and economic challenges, Syed Ali said he was confident Umno will overcome them.

He likened the presentb situation to how Umno overcame the sacking of then deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim in 1998.

"In the end the rakyat understood and rejected Anwar," he claimed.