“Punk” Rafizal given 7 days to apologise to Khairuddin

Khairuddin Abu Hassan says Umno Penang Youth Chief must apologise for making damaging statements against him or face legal action.

GEORGE TOWN: Batu Kawan Umno division deputy-chief Khairuddin Abu Hassan wants to know on what basis “a punk” like Umno Penang Youth Chief Rafizal Abdul Rahim is asking him to leave Umno which runs in his family’s blood. “Does he think Umno belongs to him?” he asked in a statement.

Khairuddin is the man in the news for recently lodging a police report on the mounting financial woes of sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.

Saying he was willing to face any disciplinary action contemplated by the party on the matter, he added, “I am not intimidated. The truth will prevail.”

He has also given Rafizal seven days to apologise and withdraw his statement alleging that he has been neglecting the people in Batu Kawan and never visits the seat. Otherwise, he warned, Rafizal will face the consequences including possible legal action without any further reference to him.

“Rafizal, being a punk, is still new in politics and the only role he knows how to play is that of being a sycophant,” said Khairuddin in tearing mercilessly into the Penang Umno Youth Chief for his “quit Umno” statement. “He’s not open-minded and has a mindset that there should be no criticism.”

“My criticisms are sincere in the hope that Umno will take heed and become a party loved by the people till the end of time.”

He denied saying that all Umno leaders were sleeping, “only some especially in Umno Penang”. “If Rafizal wants to interpret my statement differently that’s his business,” he added.

Delving into his track record, Khairuddin said he did not know how to play act or pretend in politics.

“That’s why I openly fought that rogue Anwar Ibrahim in 1998,” he said referring to the Opposition Leader seeking to bring about wide-ranging reforms in the nation’s politics since being sacked as Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister in 1998 at the height of the Asian Currency crisis which plunged the ringgit to a record low of RM4 against the USD.

He recalled that this was at a time when many people were still kissing Anwar’s hand and paying him homage and tribute and then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had not parted company with his acknowledged heir-apparent. “I am not a hypocrite,” he stressed. “I don’t say one thing in front of people and another thing behind their backs.”

He also denied harbouring “ambitions” in politics and stressed that he only wanted to serve the people quietly in his own way.

“I don’t want to be like the hen that lays an egg and crows to let the whole kampung know,” “I return almost every week from Kuala Lumpur without fail to attend to the people’s needs in Batu Kawan. I have solved so many problems there and elsewhere without any publicity.”

In a parting shot, Khairuddin said it was most unfortunate that a “punk” like Rafizal was living in the past when the world had moved on.