KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 30 — A senior Utusan Malaysia editor labelled Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo a “good” person and told the former Selangor mentri besar from Umno to be patient during his one-year imprisonment for corruption.

Datuk Zaini Hassan, assistant chief editor of the Umno-owned Malay-language daily, said the contested land that Dr Khir had bought was to build a retirement home after Barisan Nasional (BN) lost Selangor in the 2008 general election, and claimed that the issue was dug up by those in the new administration comprising PKR, DAP and PAS.

“In short, Dr Khir is a good person,” Zaini wrote in an opinion piece today titled “Dr Khir, bersabarlah…” (Dr Khir, be patient).

“Throughout his administration, he brought many successes to Selangor. That fact must be recorded,” he added.

The Federal Court upheld yesterday the one-year jail term previously meted out to Dr Khir for a corruption conviction over the purchase of land and a bungalow in Shah Alam that he was accused of underpaying for in 2007 when he was MB. The apex court also forfeited the land.

“Be patient, Dr Khir. One year is not long. Blink once, twice, and it’s over. Minus time for good behaviour, maybe the sentence can be cut by half,” said Zaini.