KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 1 — Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah maintains he is loyal to Umno but will not buckle under pressure and stop attending events organised by his party’s political foes simply because they are the opposition.
The former Umno supreme council member played down the recent show-cause letter from his party’s top leadership over his attendance at the September 22 roundtable session that led to the inception of the newest opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan.
“I'm not the only one in Umno getting the show-cause letter, so I think it's a normal party procedure, no problem. I'm still an Umno member,” he said when met a public forum here last night.
The chief executive of the government-backed Global Movement of Moderates was a panelist at the “Mempertahankan Maruah Melayu”, or “Defending Malay Dignity” talk organised by non-government organisation Gabungan Merdeka Rakyat, that also saw the participation of PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar, among others.
Asked if he won’t stop attending opposition events even after receiving the show-cause letter, Saifuddin said, “Yes. I've been doing this all my life”.
Saifuddin, who also wears the hat as head of youth organisation Akademi Belia, was slapped with the show-cause hours after he unexpectedly showed up for the September 22 event that saw the birth of a new opposition pact.
Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor claimed Saifuddin had “tarnished” the image of Umno, which is already facing a “war of perception”.
He added that the party wanted to know the reasons for Saifuddin’s presence at the Pakatan Harapan event.
