BOMBSHELL – JHO LOW BREAKS UMNO INTO PIECES: ‘ANYONE WHO DEFENDS JHO LOW IS A TRAITOR’ – PARTY VETERANS BACK RAIS & RAFIDAH DESPITE EFFORTS BY NAJIB’S MEN TO COVER UP FOR 1MDB-LINKED CROOK

IT is treason to defend Low Taek Jho aka Jho Low because the businessman is at the root of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal and has caused the government to be dragged into the mud, said the Umno Veterans’ Club.

Umno Veterans secretary Mustapha Yaakub said a sane Umno leader would never support Jho Low, much less “love” the man, Sinar Harian Online reportstoday.

“In fact, they would want action to be taken against Jho Low, in accordance with the country’s laws, if he truly had stolen 1MBD money,” Mustapha was quoted as saying in the report.

He was commenting on his Umno colleague, Dr Rais Yatim’s call for Jho Low to be investigated, which had drawn flak from party leaders and supporters.

Mustapha urged Rais to go to Prime Minister Najib Razak himself if he had evidence of wrongdoing.

Umno veteran Abdul Rahman Bakar also slammed party leaders for airing contradictory views of Jho Low.

“If they want to give statements, they should be consistent instead of contradictory, which would only cast doubt on the leadership,” said the former human resources deputy minister.

He also said certain Umno leaders who had made statements indicating they were unhappy with the party leadership were enemies from within whose actions could not be ignored.

Umno Supreme Council member Mohamed Nazri Aziz had attributed Rais’ statement to a grudge he held against the government.

Nazri said Rais, along with Rafidah Aziz, who had also spoken out against Jho Low, were still bitter about losing their government posts.

“It is not easy to have been dropped. If you have been minister for more than 10 years, you will hold a grudge,”  said the tourism and culture minister.

“Obviously, they still hold a grudge, so let them say what they want to say,” he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

Rais responded by saying he was still a minister and that he had spoken out against Jho Low because Malaysia is being criticised by the world community over the actions of the businessman.

“The world is criticising Malaysia through Jho Low. Why (do we) love the crook Jho Low so much?,” Rais said on Twitter recently.

Rais’ statements had been slammed by pro-Umno quarters,including Jasa director Faisal Ismail Aziz.

Pakatan Harapan chairman, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had mocked Umno leaders for defending Jho Low as though the businessman was a party member.

Jho Low returned to the spotlight following the Indonesian authorities’ seizure of his RM1 billion yacht, the Equanimity, in Bali, recently. The Indonesians said they were acting at the request of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has launched a criminal probe into alleged kleptocracy linked to 1MDB.

In response to the seizure, Umno stalwart Salleh Said Keruak, who is the Communications and Multimedia Minister, said there was “no proof” that Jho Low was the owner of the yacht that was impounded.

Former minister Rafidah had expressed disbelief that the Malaysian government had failed to locate the yacht wanted by US investigators.

She said she had spotted the yacht in Thailand during a snorkelling trip to Phuket last year, and had asked how the yacht had eluded Malaysian authorities when its exact location was easily known to holidaymakers like her.

– https://www.themalaysianinsight.com