LAGI AGENDA BELASAH MAHATHIR

Pak Lah tidak terbabit Kumpulan 11

KUALA LUMPUR: Presiden Umno, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi tidak terbabit dalam Kumpulan 11 yang mengheret Umno ke mahkamah sehingga parti keramat orang Melayu itu diharamkan pada 1988.

Ahli Kumpulan 11, Abdul Rahim Abd Rahman, berkata sebaliknya Presiden Umno yang ketika itu memegang jawatan Naib Presiden menasihatkan beliau (Abdul Rahim) supaya tidak meneruskan tindakan memfailkan petisyen membatalkan keputusan pemilihan parti pada 1987.

“Beliau (Abdullah) adalah orang dilantik oleh Majlis Tertinggi (MT) untuk mengadakan rundingan dengan kumpulan itu. Maka tidak benar bahawa Perdana Menteri turut terbabit membawa Umno ke mahkamah.


“Perdana Menteri (Abdullah) kata jangan terburu-buru dan jangan teruskan tindakan itu. Pada saya kalau tidak buat siapa akan buat dan apabila pendirian itu dibuat kenalah terima risiko.

“Ketika itu, banyak kelemahan dalam pentadbiran parti. Mahkamah yang memutuskan Umno haram, bukan Abdul Rahim dan Kumpulan 11,” katanya di sini, semalam.

Sidang akhbar itu antara lain bertujuan memberi penjelasan untuk membersihkan nama kumpulan berkenaan yang dituduh sebagai punca dan dalang sehingga menyebabkan pengharaman Umno dan ada yang lebih teruk mengatakan kumpulan itu yang mengharamkan parti berkenaan.


Katanya, semua ahli Umno yang selama ini salah faham terhadap kumpulan berkenaan perlu memahami permasalahan sebenar sehingga menyebabkan parti itu diharamkan malah menegaskan bahawa mereka tidak mempunyai kuasa untuk mengharamkan Umno.

Abdul Rahim berkata, bekas Perdana Menteri dan Presiden Umno, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad adalah orang yang bertanggungjawab mengharamkan Umno.

“Apabila Kumpulan 11 mengemukakan rayuan terhadap penghakiman pertama Hakim Datuk Harun Hashim memohon satu deklarasi bahawa perhimpunan perwakilan ke-37 Umno tidak sah dan supaya perhimpunan semula dapat diadakan, Dr Mahathir berasa amat gusar dan takut terhadap tuntutan itu.

Abdul Rahim berkata, selama hampir dua dekad, badan kehakiman negara mengalami kemelut campur tangan eksekutif khususnya daripada Dr Mahathir.

Katanya, selama itu juga banyak sejarah atau fakta sama ada tidak ditulis dengan betul atau tidak diberitahu dengan betul oleh bekas Perdana Menteri itu terutama mengenai kes pengharaman Umno dan pemecatan Ketua Hakim Negara dan hakim kanan pada 1988.
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Umno 11 'not dissidents or traitors to Malays'
By : Arman Ahmad

Abdul Rahim Abdul Rahman says Umno 11 did not set out to outlaw the party

KUALA LUMPUR: One of the 11 Umno members who filed a suit that led to the outlawing of the party in 1988 broke a 20-year silence yesterday, vowing to "set the record straight".

Abdul Rahim Abdul Rahman, 55, said they were loyal party members wishing to do the best for the party, not "dissidents and traitors to our own race" as what former prime minister said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had described them.

"For 20 years, we were labelled as destroyers of the party. Some said we were followers of Tengku Razaleigh Ham-zah, but this is an assumption that is not true.

"Just because we did not support Dr Mahathir doesn't mean we were sympathetic to Tengku Razaleigh.

"We wanted to do what was best for the party. There was a lot of wrongdoing going on. There was no democracy during the time of Dr Mahathir."
Abdul Rahim said the group decided to file a suit after the 1987 contest between Dr Mahathir and Tengku Razaleigh for the Umno presidential post, which was fraught with inconsistencies.

Dr Mahathir won by 43 votes (761 to 718) and followers of Tengku Razaleigh alleged that several delegates who had voted were drawn from Umno branches not properly registered.

Abdul Rahim also alleged that the balloting was not cleanly conducted.

He said that in June 1987, an appeal was filed by 12 Umno members to have the assembly and the election of April 1987 declared null and void.

However, one of them, Hussain Manap, withdrew in August, and the group became known as the "Umno 11".

After a series of hearings that took more than seven months, the matter came before justice Harun Hashim in the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Feb 4, 1988.

The judge ruled that under the law, he had no option but to find the party to be an unlawful society due to the existence of several unregistered branches, which was illegal under the Societies Act, 1966.

Abdul Rahim said the judge's ruling astounded them.

"We did not set out on this mission to outlaw Umno, but this was the ruling of the judge.

"For 20 years, we kept quiet because we did not want the party to become more threatened. We decided to come out now after Dr Mahathir became vocal in criticising the current administration.

"He thinks himself a saint who has done no wrong but he forgets that he owes an apology to all Umno members and Malaysians for all that he has done."