Kurang Ajar Ibrahim Ali blackmails UMNO

Ibrahim Ali says will wait before revealing Umno leaders’ secrets

GOMBAK, Sept 29 – Datuk Ibrahim Ali announced today that he will only reveal the secrets of three Umno leaders “when the time is right”. The Perkasa president coyly said that he was waiting for the right opportunity to reveal the secrets of Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, Khairy Jamaluddin and Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor. “I will dance according to the music. Wait for me to make my move. It is up to me whether I want to reveal anything or not,” Ibrahim (picture) told reporters today.

Nazri, who is Minister in the Prime Minister’s department had on Monday challenged Ibrahim to reveal whatever secrets the Perkasa chief may have against him, in response to the latter’s warning to three Umno leaders to stop criticising Perkasa. Ibrahim had singled out the three Umno politicians over the weekend in his admonition to politicians to stop lashing out at the Malay rights group or risk having their “secrets” revealed. Nazri had said that Ibrahim’s threats did not frighten him, but rather it had strengthened his resolve in opposing Perkasa’s brand of “racism.” “I want Ibrahim Ali to reveal whatever secrets he may have against me. In fact, I dare him to. He better start revealing [these] soon, because I will continue to attack Perkasa and I will continue to fight him,” Nazri told The Malaysian Insider. The minister in the prime minister’s department has been vocal in condemning Perkasa for what he deemed an erosion of Barisan Nasional’s (BN) support from the non-Malay electorate. Ibrahim said today that his decision to not reveal the “secrets” right now did not mean that he was a coward. “I am a man who is not scared of anything... I want to take this step by step,” said Ibrahim. Nazri, along with Khairy and Tengku Adnan have all been reported as having spoken out against the Malay rights group. Khairy had raised concerns that BN would lose non-Malay support if it does not immediately disassociate itself from Perkasa.

The Umno Youth chief said there was a perception now to affiliate Umno with Perkasa, and that this was “hurting” BN’s bid to gain non-Malay votes, which severely dwindled in the last general election. Similarly, Nazri had declared that the Umno did not support or recognise the Malay rights group, saying Umno was against any form of racism and that Perkasa’s ideals did not fit in the Najib administration’s focus on plurality and unity. Earlier this month, Tengku Adnan also recently said his BN counterparts had agreed that distancing the ruling coalition from Perkasa was the best way forward to halt the slide in non-Malay support for BN. He added that Umno would not back the strident Malay rights group or Ibrahim in the next general election. Tengku Adnan, however, subsequently denied stating that BN was distancing itself from Perkasa after Najib said that Umno did not want to stir conflict with any non-governmental organisation despite the recent move by Umno leaders to rebuff the Malay rights group. The Mahathir-backed Perkasa is still seen by many as commanding significant support from within Umno as well as the Malay grassroots.