UMNO AGM | An Umno delegate has called for authorities to investigate the owner of news portal The Malaysian Insight (TMI) over alleged insults against the Umno leadership and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Citing documents from the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM), Penang delegate Mohd Nashrol Hisham Abdullah (photo above) claimed that TMI was owned by Faridah Begum.

Faridah is the sister of TMI editor-in-chief Jahabar Saddiq, and wife of attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali (photo).

"We delegates want the authorities to investigate who this Faridah Begum is,” said Penang delegate Mohd Nashrol Hisham, during the debate at the Umno general assembly in the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur today.

"TMI attacked our leaders, our prime minister, our president... The authorities should not let this happen. Find them 'sampai lubang cacing' (until the ends of the earth). Don't let this happen as (TMI) insulted our leadership," the Tasek Gelugor Umno Youth leader told the assembly.

Mohd Nashrol, however, did not state how TMI had attacked Najib and Umno.

When contacted, Jahabar declined comment. Malaysiakini has also reached out to Apandi for a response.

Yesterday, Johor delegate Haliza Abdullah (photo) had related how TMI's predecessor, The Malaysian Insider, had been shut down by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), while speaking about news portals, including Malaysiakini. 

However, she did not make clear if she was suggesting that the MCMC take similar action against portals critical of the government.

TMI began operations in April, a year after Insider shut down due to "commercial reasons."

Insider was blocked by MCMC on the portal’s eighth anniversary on Feb 25, 2016, due to an article on Najib.

Apandi, meanwhile, became attorney-general in July 2015, in a surprise move that saw his predecessor Abdul Gani Patail's term come to an abrupt end.

Apandi is best known for clearing Najib of any wrongdoing in the RM2.6 billion donation and SRC International scandals.