Tunku ’Abidin Muhriz apologises for leeches comment

(The Star) – President of Ideas Tunku ‘Abidin Muhriz apologised Friday for remarks he had made in his article that was published in the column Roaming Beyond the Fence.

“I would like to apologise for the misunderstanding caused by my comment pertaining to leeches at PWTC this week.

“Although I clearly restricted the analogy to “some” individuals, several quarters have interpreted my comment as applying to all those participating in the Umno General Assembly. This is most unfortunate.

“Anyone who has been reading my articles over the past three years will know that I admire and deeply respect many Umno leaders,” Tunku Abidin said in a statement.

He was criticised at the Umno general assembly for implying that some of the delegates were leeches

“So, when I implied that leeches had penetrated the party, it was out of a sense of disappointment, not of an intrinsic hatred of the party, as has been suggested.”

Tunku Abidin pointed out that he had deep respect for Umno leaders like Datuk Onn Jaafar, Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Hussein Onn

“Most recently, I have consistently praised the efforts of Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah in fighting for further democracy and freedom for all Malaysians.

“Furthermore, I have been consistent in congratulating the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak for his courageous attempts to reform the country under the Government Transformation Programme and Economic Transformation Programme.”

Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin welcomed Tunku Abidin’s apology as well as the clarification on his stand.

“It was not fair of him to make a generalised statement against Umno,” said the Rembau MP.