UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today told suspended and sacked party leaders to stop attacking the party from the outside.

He said if they were loyal to the party, it would always open its doors for these leaders to return.

“In this regard, we have the party constitution and party rules. We want to see whether our friends who have been suspended, or worse (sacked), after their (disciplinary action), are really party men, or have they been enemies within?

“If they are really party men, they won’t make noise here and there, criticising the party from the outside.

“If they really love the party, they need to emulate what (Umno Supreme Council member) Lokman Noor Adam did… he was sacked but he never backstabbed the party,” he told party delegates in his winding-up speech at the Umno general assembly.

Lokman was sacked in 2020 after calling for Zahid’s resignation, but was accepted back into the fold the following year with a number of conditions. He was elected as a Supreme Council member in the 2023 party elections.

It is understood that Zahid was referring to sacked former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, former information chief Shahril Hamdan and Hishammuddin Hussein over their criticism against the party.

Zahid later told reporters that those sacked had not appealed to the party. – June 10, 2023.