Dr M’s portrait went dark due to technical problems – Khairy
PUTRAJAYA: UMNO Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin has dismissed claims that a portrait of former UMNO president Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was deliberately not lit up at UMNO’s headquarters at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur during a breaking-of-fast event Wednesday night.
He said he believed it could have been due to technical problems or the fuse of the spotlight designated for Dr Mahathir’s portrait having blown.
The Youth and Sports Minister said irresponsible quarters were intentionally blowing up the matter.
“There is no way we will do this. It does not make sense,” he said when asked to comment on netizens “going to town” on social media about only “Dr Mahathir’s portrait being in the dark among the portraits of UMNO’s seven presidents” at the event.
The portraits of the UMNO presidents were displayed in front of Dewan Tun Razak, PWTC.
Khairy was met by reporters after witnessing the signing of a collaboration agreement between his ministry and the Federation of Malaysian Skills Development Centres (FMSDC) here yesterday.
Meanwhile, Umno secretarygeneral Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor accused Malaysiakini of being a tool of the US intelligence agency and “Christians” after the news portal reported the blackout of the electronic billboard depicting Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
In a series of Twitter messages, the Putrajaya MP uploaded a picture of the report accompanied by a post accusing Malaysiakini of malicious intention in publishing the article.
“Let us remember that to visit this site is wrong. This is the work of the Christians and CIA who are spying on us now,” Tengku Adnan said on his Twitter handle @TengkuAdnanReal.
The picture, which has been circulated on the Internet, showed the giant-sized portraits of Umno’s past and incumbent presidents all lit up, with the exception of Dr Mahathir’s.
Meanwhile, an engineer reportedly told Malay Mail Online during a visit to the Putra World Trade Centre yesterday afternoon that the light on Dr Mahathir’s portrait had failed to light up due to a loose connector, which was fixed later the same night.
“It was just the connector. It was loose. So we fixed it back last night. Nothing major,” the building’s electrical engineer who gave his name as Mr Hui said.