Others consider some of his remarks outlandish, and he is also seen as being very aggressive, to the point of being called a gangster.
However, Tajuddin Abdul Rahman says people call him all these things because they don’t know the real Tajuddin.
“I am aware of what they are saying about me. There are people who think (of me) that way. Maybe they don’t understand between being a gangster and being vocal at an appropriate place and time.” the Pasir Salak MP said.
He told FMT in an exclusive interview that those who thought of him as being too aggressive would change their minds once they got to know him.
The 73-year-old says that at one time even members of Wanita Umno and Puteri Umno were afraid to approach him.
“But when they got to know me, they saw another side of me,” he said, adding that he would continue to be vocal, stern and fight for the rights of the people.
He says he has no patience with those who want to play politics, especially those who prefer to “befriend the enemy” instead of defending the party’s struggle.
As long as the situation demands, the Umno election director says he will continue to be vocal. “Why get involved, if you can’t be vocal?”
The NEP
He also commented on former banker Nazir Razak’s recent remarks that many principles of the New Economic Policy no longer worked and had instead led to dysfunctional politics and growing divisions among Malaysia’s communities.
Nazir, the son of Malaysia’s second prime minister and NEP architect Abdul Razak Hussein, had said the status quo was quickly becoming untenable and asked if the country’s leaders had the initiative to develop and implement new political, economic and social systems.
Tajuddin disagreed with Nazir, saying the NEP was still needed to close the economic gap between the different races.
“We are (still) not in that situation. If (Nazir wants it) to improve, tell us your ideas to make it better than before.”
The MP says the policy was right but the implementation and commitment have been wrong, adding that the blame should not go to BN.
“The implementation is under the Cabinet, the prime minister and the ministers.”
He says former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad may be partly responsible for the poor implementation of the NEP as he had loosened Bumiputera equity requirements for foreign direct investors.
For instance, he says, if a German company opens a business here, it is free to set up the company without participation from the locals.