KUALA LUMPUR, May 15 — The three Terengganu Umno lawmakers who fled their party briefly earlier this week do not need to be punished, Datuk Ahmad Maslan said, despite the scare the trio caused when their departures nearly saw Barisan Nasional (BN) lose control of the state.

The Umno information chief said it was not necessary to punish the three as Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was able to contain the damage before it turned into a full-fledged crisis for the ruling pact.

“No disciplinary action is necessary. It is not as chronic as presumed because we were able to resolve it within 48 hours... if it went on for weeks it would have impacted us negatively.

“Why do we want to rub salt into the wound again and make it worst?” said Ahmad Maslan, who is also Pontian MP.

The BN government in Terengganu came precariously close to toppling when Datuk Seri Ahmad Said quit Umno scant hours after being replaced as mentri besar on Monday.

In a huff, the Kijal assemblyman and two other state lawmakers declared themselves independent representatives; and turned BN into a minority government for just under 48 hours, with the 13-member coalition seeing its slim 17-seat majority in the 32-seat Terengganu legislative assembly whittled down to 14.

PAS, a member of the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) opposition pact, controls 14 seats in the state assembly while its PKR partner has one seat.

Ahmad Said had claimed that he had asked Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to allow him to step down as mentri besar after his daughter’s wedding reception this weekend but the Umno president reportedly disregarded the request as a “personal matter”.

He cited this as one of his reasons for leaving the party.

His temporary departure prompted Ajil assemblyman Ghazali Taib and Bukit Besi assemblyman Roslee Daud to follow suit. All three assemblymen have since withdrawn their resignation letters.

Yesterday, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad blamed the incident on "weak leaders" in Umno’s top tier for failing to preempt the entanglement and for taking its state leaders for granted.

But Ahmad Maslan today insisted that the temporary setback did not reflect on "Umno being weak" but just the lack of discipline and "misplaced loyalty" among some of its members.

"We are thankful a full blown crisis was averted," he added.