KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — The difficult decision to punish openly dissenting members will result in some backlash but is necessary for the greater good of Umno, party leaders said.

According to the grassroots leaders, the Umno leadership should also not have allowed the rogue members to continue their public attacks after their initial outbursts, saying the apparent leniency has resulted in confusion among members.

The Umno men told Malay Mail Online that there will be grouses if the dissenting leaders are punished, but expressed belief that the party will understand the necessity of the move and rally to president Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

“If Tan Sri (Muhyiddin) is sacked or suspended, I’m sure at first there will be a lot of people here (Johor) that would be angry, but after awhile it should be fine. They will learn to accept it,” Umno Youth executive committee member Anuar Abd Manap told Malay Mail Online.

Kluang Umno division chief Md Jais Sarday said that party leaders in Johor differed on whether rogue Umno members should be suspended.

But he stressed that the main issue at hand for Umno was for it to address the apparent message that was conveyed by allowing some leaders to openly attack the party and its leaders.

“Umno has to focus on the main problem, which is to solve the perception issue that people have towards the party.

“Today in the party, we have leaders that have differing views. If we fail to overcome this problem, this will confuse the Umno members at grassroots level and the people as they are in need of an explanation,” Md Jais said.

When asked to comment, Selangor Umno state lawmaker Datuk Johan Abd Aziz said disciplinary action should have been taken much earlier against errant party leaders and that the delay in resolving the issue was causing a schism within the party.

“The investigations should have been done earlier, and action from there taken earlier because it is clear in the party’s constitution that all leaders — including the deputy president — must defend the party,” the Semenyih assemblyman explained to Malay Mail Online.

Earlier this week, Datuk Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said that seven Umno leaders who openly criticised the party will likely have their memberships and party posts suspended.

The Umno secretary-general confirmed that some of the seven unnamed Umno leaders currently held party posts, and that the matter was currently being investigated by the party’s disciplinary board.

Johor Umno information chief Datuk Samsol Bari Jamali defended Tengku Adnan’s remarks, saying that such disciplinary measures was common in Umno or any other political organisation.

He explained that Umno, like any other formal organisation, has rules of conduct that must be applied equally to all members, from the grassroots to the very upper echelons.

“Anyone who has flouted party rules should be prepared to have action taken against them, that is fine as long as the system is not abused,” he informed Malay Mail Online.

According to a report from The Star, almost 75 per cent of Umno division leaders want the party’s supreme council to take action on leaders who have spoken out against the party lately.

Citing an internal Umno study meant only for division chiefs, the English daily claimed that 154 of the 170 leaders polled over 48 hours on messaging app Telegram said they wanted action the dissenters punished.

Besides Muhyiddin, other leaders who have been critical of the Umno leadership and the government’s stand on issues such as 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) include former president Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and vice-president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal.

Najib dropped Muhyiddin as deputy prime minister and removed Shafie as the rural and regional development minister during a Cabinet reshuffle in July.

Muhyiddin and Shafie recently joined Dr Mahathir and three other senior politicians in criticising Putrajaya’s use of the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 to detain Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan and his lawyer Matthias Chang over reports they lodged on 1MDB.