Telok Ayer Tawar assemblyman Azmi Alang said Wan Saiful’s remarks were irresponsible and damaging to the party’s image, and claimed that the first-term MP was chasing publicity instead of serving the people.

Azmi, the Tasek Gelugor Bersatu chief, said elected representatives like Wan Saiful should argue with facts and solutions, not “cheap rhetoric”.

“I urge the party leadership to take stern action, including sacking him, to preserve the integrity, discipline and dignity of our struggle.

“If we fail to act, the party will be seen as weak and tolerant of immoral conduct that undermines our struggle,” he said in a statement.

Azmi said such behaviour distracts from substantive issues and burdens the party in the long run.

He said Wan Saiful’s actions only serves their rivals with political ammunition to attack them.

At a press conference earlier, Wan Saiful said Azmin is unfit to be a party leader so long as the controversy surrounding a 2019 video, purportedly of the former minister engaging in homosexual acts, remains unresolved.

The Bersatu Supreme Council member said moral scandals cannot be tolerated by the party.

He also said he plans to refer Azmin and Bersatu information chief Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz to the party’s disciplinary board for allegedly threatening division leaders supposedly linked to a plot to oust Muhyiddin Yassin as Bersatu president.