Umno agrees to expel Usno from BN
Published on: Monday, February 27, 1984
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The Prime Minister and Umno president said the party would submit a proposal to expel Usno from the coalition at the Barisan Nasional supreme council meeting in Labuan on April 15.
Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir, who is chairman of the Barisan, said that the meeting would make a final decision whether Usno should be expelled. He was speaking to reporters after chairing the Umno supreme council meeting at the party’s headquarters here.
He said the proposal would be tabled by Umno deputy president Datuk Musa Hitam or Tengku Ahmad Rithauddeen or Datuk Harun Idris, both of them vice-presidents of the party. The other vice-president, Encik Abdul Ghafar Baba, is secretary-general of the Barisan.
Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir first spoke of the possibility of expelling a Barisan Nasional component party which had been `back-stabbing’ the government when opening a Berjaya youth-organised political workcamp in Keningau last Sunday.
He spoke on the subject several times after that but did not until today identify the party as Usno.
In his speech in Keningau, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir had said that the Barisan component party had tried to keep alive the Constitutional Amendments issue and opposed the move to make Labuan a Federal Territory. The Prime Minister said the party’s leaders had met groups opposed to the amendments to discuss court action to stop them from being enforced. The party had also launched a signature campaign to make it appear that the kampung people in Labuan were against making the island a Federal Territory, he said.
Former Usno vice-president Datuk Haji Dzulkifli Hamid had appealed to the Umno supreme council not to initiate the expulsion of the party from the Barisan “in the interests of bumiputeras in Sabah.”
He said that only a small number of Usno members had worked against the constitution amendments and the move to make Labuan a Federal Territory.
Commenting yesterday on the appeal, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir said: “Umno has made its stand clear. It is up to the Barisan Nasional to decide whether to discuss Datuk Dzulkifli’s appeal.”
He said he himself had not received any appeal from Usno, and any appeal should now be forwarded to the Barisan Nasional.
“Before we expel them (Usno), their leaders have the right to attend the Barisan supreme council meeting, where they can make an appeal. — Bernama
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