Umno Supreme Council member Puad Zarkashi said Rembia assemblyman Jailani Khamis ‘is the one making himself bankrupt’.
PETALING JAYA: Umno Supreme Council member Puad Zarkashi today said that Rembia assemblyman Jailani Khamis only has himself to blame for the RM100 million in damages and compensation sought by the party for his defection to PAS.
Jailani had earlier said that Umno intended to bankrupt him with the RM100 million demand.
“He is the one making himself bankrupt. He signed a statutory declaration, then switched parties, so he must face the consequences (of his own actions),” Puad said in a Facebook post.
Jailani had described the RM100 million demanded by Umno as the price he had to pay for “sticking to his principles”.
He said he decided to join PAS as Umno leaders had failed to keep their promises to the people, including on having no cooperation with DAP.
“How am I supposed to feed my children?” Jailani said during a recent Perikatan Nasional (PN) ceramah for the upcoming by-election in Nenggiri.
Last Saturday, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced that the party had issued Jailani a letter of demand for RM100 million in damages and compensation due to his joining PAS.
He said that all Barisan Nasional (BN) candidates are required to sign a RM100 million bond and are bound by an agreement not to leave the party.
Jailani has said he is ready to contest the matter in court.
His Umno membership was suspended for six years last September over his attendance at two Johor by-election events by PN. Last month, PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan said that Jailani had joined the Islamic party in June 2023.
Jailani was elected in Rembia in 2018 on a PKR ticket. He joined Umno in 2021 and was re-elected on a BN ticket.
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