KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 4 — Umno should just sack Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah for his decision to attend opposition events as the former supreme council member does not seem to be interested in the party anymore, Utusan Malaysia’s editors said today.

Writing under the shared Awang Selamat pseudonym, the editors at the Umno-owned daily claimed that Saifuddin no longer commanded influence within the party since he lost his Temerloh parliamentary seat to PAS in the last general election.

“To me, Saifuddin is no longer interested in Umno, and Umno in turn no longer depends on him. Moreover, his influence in the party is gone since his loss in Temerloh. So what are they waiting for, when there is no compatibility between the two?” they wrote today in the weekend Mingguan Malaysia edition.

The Utusan editors warned that failure to act swiftly against Saifuddin would send a wrong message to the party grassroots, and that the former deputy minister had been given enough reminders for “contradicting” the party through his actions.

“Failure to act will send the wrong message to all. Without Saifuddin in Umno, no one will shed a tear, instead, it would be a big relief for everyone,” it said.

Saifuddin was served a show-cause letter by Umno Secretary-General Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor with a 14-day deadline for the former to explain why he attended a Pakatan Harapan meeting on September 22.

Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor claimed Saifuddin had “tarnished” the image of Umno, which is already facing a “war of perception”.

Saifuddin, who is also the CEO of Global Movement of Moderates (GMM), had replied the show-cause letter on Friday, seeking clarification on what offence he had actually committed and had said he was unsure if the letter was directed at him in his capacity as an Umno member or as chief executive of GMM.