KUALA LUMPUR: Setiausaha Agung Umno, Annuar Musa mengakui masih ada sikap mengejar kuasa dan kekayaan dalam parti itu selepas ia mengalami kekalahan mengejut dalam pilihan raya umum tahun lalu.

Katanya, sikap itu perlu dibuang untuk membolehkan Umno bangkit dan kembali kepada matlamat perjuangan untuk agama.

“Orang Umno ini terutamanya bila dah peringkat senang dapat kerajaan, dia nampak nak jadi calon, nampak kekayaan, nampak projek, nampak harta dan inilah bahana yang telah menimpa kita, sampai sekarang penyakit ini belum hilang.

“Umno ini bukan tempat nak cari harta. Umno adalah satu-satunya parti yang wujud dalam negara kita di saat kita tidak ada kekayaan, tidak ada harta, tidak ada ilmu.

“Parti ini wujud sebelum ada sistem pilihan raya,” katanya ketika berucap merasmikan mesyuarat perwakilan Pemuda Umno Bahagian Kuala Selangor hari ini.

Beliau turut mengingatkan ahli untuk berjuang demi Islam, bukannya kerana bangsa Melayu.

“Lahir Umno apabila Orang Melayu dan umat Islam dalam negara terpanggil setelah sekian lama kita hidup tanpa menegakkan agama.

“Saya selalu kata kalaulah negara ini dijajah oleh Islam, katakan Portugis itu Islam, Belanda itu Islam, Siam itu Islam, saya percaya Umno tidak akan wujud.”

Lawan DAP kerana dasar

Annuar berkata, Umno menentang DAP bukan kerana ia diterajui bangsa lain, tetapi disebabkan dasar yang dibawakan parti itu.

“Kita menentang DAP bukan kerana ada Lim Kit Siang. Kita bukan tentang DAP kerana nama dia DAP, bukan kerana dia jatuhkan kita. Kita menentang DAP kerana dasar DAP itu, bukan sebab DAP itu Cina ke apa kerana Islam sendiri tidak melawan Cina.

“Perjuangan kita mesti berpandu kepada agama. Islam tidak pernah ajar sentimen perkauman kerana tanah Melayu ada Cina, India. Melayu Islam tidak lihat warna kulit sebab itu Islam larang, Malaysia ini bebas nak amal agama apa.”

BENGALURU: Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes England’s success in their home World Cup may bode ill for Australia’s hopes of retaining the Ashes.

England knocked Australia out of the semi-finals with an emphatic eight-wicket win and another over New Zealand in Sunday’s final will see the hosts head into next month’s five-test Ashes series with significant momentum.

“It probably does, to be honest,” Ponting said, when asked whether England’s 50-over success could spill over.

“The country will be on a bit of a wave and a bit of a high, the players will certainly be on a huge high after that World Cup.

“But who knows if they don’t (win), it might have an adverse effect on their Ashes campaign as well.

“You can take lots of things from different series.

“It’s a completely different series going into an Ashes and there will be quite a few different players in their Test team than will be in this one-day team. They’ll have different captains as well.

“But I’m sure if they happen to win the World Cup, they’ll take as much as they can from it going into the Ashes.”

Australia hold the urn after thrashing England 4-0 on home soil in the 2017-18 Ashes.

The first Ashes test starts at Edgbaston on Aug 1.

Ponting, hired as an assistant coach to Justin Langer for Australia’s World Cup campaign, watched Aaron Finch’s side fall to South Africa and England in successive matches to bow out of the tournament after they had been the first side to book their place in the semi-finals.

Injuries did not help Australia’s cause and Ponting was not prepared to wear the blame for the side’s tactical preparations.

“Tactically, I think we got things right. Personnel-wise, we picked the best team that we could for every game,” Ponting told Cricket Australia’s website (cricket.com.au).

“Unusually for Australian teams in World Cups, we played our worst cricket in the most critical moments.

“That’ll be the thing that gets spoken about the most and see if there’s any reason behind it.”

KUCHING, July 13 – Six new areas in Sarawak have been declared as rabies-infected areas, bringing to 63 the total number of areas declared as such since 2017.

Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas said among the latest affected areas was a longhouse, Rh. Samueh Adeng in Engkilili, which is outside the 10-kilometre radius of the rabies-infected area.

He said the other five were Kampung Seroban and Kampung Siantan, Jalan Tangga By-Pass in Serian, Kin Chu Shin in Batu Kawa here, Tanjung Durian in Siniawan in Bau and Kesuma Resort in Petra Jaya here.

“The state Veterinary Department laboratory had from July 5 to 12 conducted tests on 14 samples coming from Kuching, Serian, Bintulu, Kapit and Sri Aman Divisions.

“Six samples tested positive for rabies came from the six areas, including the longhouse, and those from Bintulu and Kapit were negative,” Uggah, who is also chairman of the State Disaster Management Committee, said in a statement here today.

Meanwhile, Uggah called on dog owners to have their dogs vaccinated and assured that so far no dogs which had been given vaccination had died.

He said the Phase 5 Operation covering Sri Aman, Lubok Antu and Betong would be held from July 31 to August 3.

“I appeal to all dog owners in these areas to have their dogs vaccinated. Please cooperate with us and bear in mind that rabies is a life-threatening disease,” he said.

Sarawak has recorded 19 rabies cases, including 18 fatal ones, since the rabies outbreak in the state. — Bernama

KUCHING, July 13 — Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Youth today urged former Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) deputy president Datuk Dr Jerip Susil and his supporters to heed calls for them to return to Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP).

Youth wing chief Michael Tiang said SUPP is a political party where they originally belong to, before they left to form PSB in 2014.

“We fully support our president Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian’s stance that SUPP welcomes him and all former members back to our party,” Tiang said when responding to the resignation of Dr Jerip, who is also the assistant minister of transportation, from PSB two days ago.

Yesterday, Dr Sim, who is also the local government and housing minister, called on Dr Jerip and other state lawmakers from PSB to return to SUPP.

Tiang, who is also a political secretary to the chief minister, noted that it was not the first time that Dr Sim had invited former members now in PSB to come back to Sarawak’s oldest political party.

“Our door is also open to any Sarawakians who would like to serve Sarawak through the party,” he said.

Tiang said the people of Mambong, which is represented by Dr Jerip in the Sarawak state assembly, will benefit in terms of minor rural project fund and rural transformation project fund which are only allocated to Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) lawmakers, but not to PSB lawmakers.

“Together , under the banner of GPS, we can also preserve Sarawak’s political integrity from outside influences promoted by the Pakatan Harapan leaders,” he said, adding that GPS is the only Sarawak based political coalition that is capable of leading the state into a new phase of prosperous future for all races.