Thursday April 23, 2009

Terengganu Umno wants MB and Group of 18 to reconcile

KUALA TERENGGANU: Teren-gganu Umno has called for a truce between Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said and 18 Barisan Nasional assemblymen, known as the “Group of 18”, who are opposing him.

State Umno Liaison Committee secretary Datuk Rosli Mat Hassan said he would suggest this at the party’s monthly meeting as police had confirmed that the death threats sent via SMS to some of the assemblymen did not originate from the MB’s office.

“For unity and in the interest of the state Umno, we have to put aside our differences and reconcile. It is now proven that the SMSes were not sent by the MB’s private secretary (Wan Ahmad Wan Muda), so the squabbling must stop,” he said yesterday.

Rosli said he believed that some quarters who harboured malicious intentions were behind the SMS.

“Someone wanted to see chaos and pit the MB against the BN assemblymen,’’ he said.

Rosli said Ahmad was willing to talk with the disgruntled assemblymen.

He said the assemblymen concerned should also stop airing their grouses over the media.

He also expressed his willingness to brief the assemblymen on the rationale behind appointing a former ambulance driver as director of a state government-linked company.

“Yes, he was a driver in the late 1970s but don’t tell me he has to be in the same occupation all his life. The MB decided for him to helm the state timber corporation based on his proven track record as a businessman and not as a driver.’’

State Barisan Backbenchers Club chairman Datuk Rosol Wahid said he remained suspicious as to the source of the SMS, as the handphone number matched that of the official in the MB’s office.

Rosol, one of the assemblymen who received the threatening SMSes, said the suspect detained by police could not have cloned the handphone number of the senior official.

“Police should be commended for a good job but the question now is how come the handphone number was exactly that of the MB’s private secretary,’’ said Rosol.