Umno postpones tomorrow's economic forum, new agenda is Najib

Umno is postponing the Bumiputera Economic Pre-Congress Colloquium that is scheduled to be held at the Kuala Lumpur World Trade Centre tomorrow.

Instead, an Umno supreme council meeting will be held tomorrow morning to “discuss recent political developments particularly in relation to the Pardons Board announcement on reducing (former prime minister) Najib Abdul Razak’s sentence.”

The announcement of the event’s postponement and the special meeting was made by Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi tonight.

No new date was given for the colloquium.

This followed the Pardons Board’s announcement earlier today that Najib’s 12-year jail sentence was reduced to six, meaning he would be released on Aug 23, 2028.

His RM210 million fine was reduced to RM50 million. However, if he fails to pay up, his imprisonment will be extended by one year until Aug 23, 2029.

This is for his corruption and abuse of power convictions in the RM42 million SRC International case. Najib is still facing trial for various other charges including four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.27 billion from 1MDB.

The colloquium originally slated for tomorrow was intended to gather feedback and ideas to be presented at the Bumiputera Economic Congress, which would be held for three days starting Feb 29.

In a Bernama report on Jan 5, Zahid reportedly said Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had ordered for the congress to be held to set a new direction and approach for the bumiputera agenda.

In his statement today, Zahid said the colloquium led by Umno vice president Johari Abdul Ghani was to be attended by 2,000 leaders from all 191 Umno divisions.

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