This year’s UMNO General Assembly in the Putra World Trade Centre will be a closed-door event, with media outlets being barred from their customary live coverage of the debates and speeches, Tengku Adnan Mansor confirmed today.
The UMNO secretary-general said the decision, which will apply even to mainstream media channels such as RTM, TV3 and UMNO-linked daily Utusan Malaysia, is to avoid “spinning” of the news.
“The assembly will be closed-door session. No press. Because in the past press have been spinning news so we want to avoid that,” he told The Malay Mail Online‘s Shazwan Mustafa Kamal.
Ku Nan added that UMNO itself would provide the press with updates at the end of every convention day.
The announcement follows claims by former prime minister and vocal critic of current PM Najib Razak, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who on Monday wrote on his personal blog that the debates and delegates’s speeches from the UMNO Assembly would not be televised.
“The assembly will be closed to the public. Not all of the speeches of the delegates will be telecast. Only the president’s speech will be telecast.
“As deputy president, (Tan Sri) Muhyiddin Yassin will officiate the wing’s assemblies. Warnings have been issues so that Umno members do not talk about this,” Mahathir wrote.
The media restrictions are being imposed as Najib’s grip on the UMNO presidency is seen to be increasingly tenuous, with the scandal surrounding sovereign investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and the mysterious transfer of RM2.6 billion into his bank accounts in 2013 dogging him.
Numerous UMNO branches have come out in opposition to Najib’s leadership, calling for his resignation for the sake of the party’s continued supremacy at the national polls.
In August, it was reported that Tampin’s UMNO Youth division approved an emergency motion to not only call for Najib’s resignation from the UMNO presidency, but also from his position as Prime Minister.
However, UMNO vice-president and chair of the party’s secretariat in charge of general assembly motions Hishammuddin Hussein said on November 19 that no motions calling for Najib’s ouster had been received by his committee.
