Megat Junid is new Umno information chief NH 1 1 MAY 2002 KUALA LUMPUR,‘Fri. - Former party.” Umno supreme council member Observers view the appointment Tan Sri Megat Junid Megat Ayub as an opportunity for Megat Junid has been appointed party infor- to make a comeback to mainstream mationchief effective today. politics. Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Megat Junid, 60, has been in the Mahathir Mohamad announced movement for almost three decades this after the party’s supreme since,1972 His interest in politics council meeting at Menara Dato’ started even during his campus Onn. days when he was active in the The former Domestic Trade and Malay students’association. Consumer Affairs Minister takes He was political secretary to Dr over from Datuk Mustapa Moha- Mahathir (then Deputy Prime mad, who resigned last month to Minister and Education Minister) concentrate on his post as Kelantan in 1976 until 1981 when Dr Ma- Umno liaison committee chief. hathir became Pri e Minister. Dr Mahathir said Megat Junid He was MP for ilir Perak in 1982 was chosen because he “can talk after the generP 1 election. In 1999, and is a veteran in LJmno as well as having wide experience in the q ITURNTOP ’ Me at Junid turned to writing Nst 1 1 MAY 2002 0 F OM PAGE ONE he’contestedk the Parit parliamenta- ry seat and lost to Pas commission- er Mat Basir Rahmat by 1,293 votes. In the last Umno division dele- gates’ election last year, he failed to be elected as the Pasir Salak divi- _ sion head when he lost to Deputy Transport Minister Tan Sri Ramli Ngah Talib by 11 votes. Megat Junid, who had been the division’s deputy head since 1987, decided to challenge Ramli for the first time, making the contest one of the fiercest in the state. During his “retirement” from ac- tive politics, he wrote a book, “Ge- tek” (“Displeasure”) an extension of Dr Mahathir’s wake-up call for Umno members to conduct soul- searching in view of Umno’s bat- tered image after the 1999 general election.