A file picture of Ali Tinju (left) when he was brought to court on July 16 to face charges in relation to the Low Yat Plaza incident. The charges were later dropped due to insufficient evidence.
PETALING JAYA: Mohd Ali Baharom, better known as Ali Tinju, is not the president of the Malaysian Armed Forces Veterans' Association (PVATM), and the group is threatening to take disciplinary action against him for damaging its reputation.
In a press statement on Saturday, PVATM said they were not associated with Ali Tinju's now-defunct Malay Armed Forces Veterans' Association (PVTM), and slammed Ali Tinju's "racist" actions.
"The controversial actions by Ali Tinju have portrayed a bad image of Malaysian armed forces veterans as a whole.
"His actions are contradictory and incompatible with the principles and practices of all armed forces veterans in the country," said the association.
While Ali Tinju did set up PVTM, which could easily be confused for PVATM, the group claimed that the Registrar of Societies had dissolved it in April 2014 after it had failed to comply with certain rules and regulations.
It also noted that Ali Tinju was a member of PVATM and was registered with their Petaling branch in Selangor, although he had not been an active member.
It said the PVATM would take disciplinary action against Ali Tinju in the future if he continued to do things that tarnished the "image and reputation" of the association and armed forces veterans in general.
"In the meantime, we hope the local media will no longer mention or associate Ali Tinju as the PVTM president as it no longer exists and he is not the president of our association.
"In the future we also hope that the media will only relate the actions of Ali Tinju as that of an individual and a Malaysian civilian, and not that of a Malaysian armed forces veteran," said the association.
Quoting the Malay proverb "kerana nila setitik, rosak susu sebelanga (one bad apple spoils the whole barrel)", the association expressed hope that its reputation and that of all armed forces veterans would not be ruined by the actions of one man.
