Right wing group Perkasa appears to be sharpening its knives against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak over his promise to abolish the Sedition Act.

Perkasa secretary-general Syed Hassan Syed Ali even likened Najib to a Pakatan Rakyat prime minister if he heeded opposition demands to do away with the colonial era law.

“What is the point of us being Umno members if the party president, who is also the prime minister, is more inclined to conform with opposition demands?

“If he continues to give in to oppositon demands, then it means the prime minister we have now is a prime minister from Pakatan Rakyat,” he said in a statement today.

Perkasa, which comprise largely Umno members, emerged after the 12th general election as a pressure group to push for more hardline policies in Umno and BN.

Syed Hassan (left) also appeared to challenge Najib, asking if the premier would dare to go against Umno grassroots by touting the abolition of the Sedition Act at the Umno general assembly scheduled for later this year.

“Perkasa would like to see Najib defend his recent statements about wanting to abolish the Sedition Act or to listen to the demands of Umno grassroots which want it to be retained,” he said.

Syed Hassan also noted Umno supreme council member Shahidan Kassim’s statement that majority of Umno divisions also wanted a return of the repealed Internal Security Act (ISA) which provided detention without trial.

“Perkasa is curious that the majority of Umno supreme council are also Umno division leaders but ISA was still abolished.

“Did the Umno president make his own decision and the Umno supreme council did not dare to oppose and merely obeyed the proposal to abolish ISA?” he said.

Syed Hassan urged that a motion be tabled at the Umno general assembly for the return of  the detention law, as well as to retain the Sedition Act.