KUALA LUMPUR, May 15 — Umno Women chief Datuk Seri Noraini Ahmad has denied that party president, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, instructed party leaders to invite DAP representatives to every programme they organise.

Her comments come after a recent WhatsApp conversation allegedly among members of the Umno supreme council on the supposed directive went viral.

In a statement today, Noraini called the leaked conversation an attempt at slander by "irresponsible parties who are trying to break up the party”.

"This is all slander. As far as I know, this WhatsApp group does not exist. If real, it is not MT Umno’s official WhatsApp group. Maybe it was deliberately created to slander the party,” she said, using the Malay acronym for ‘supreme council’.

According to Noraini, the conversation appeared to be about her extending an invitation to DAP’s Bangi MP, Ong Kian Ming, to one of her programmes last Wednesday.

She then explained that their visits to the Vaccination Distribution Centre (PPV) at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) happened to coincide on that day.

"I went to the PPV in UKM to meet MyVac volunteers who did not return to their hometowns to celebrate Aidilfitri. I ran into Ong there,” she said.

"Before leaving, Ong asked where I was off to next, and I replied that I was going to meet UKM students who had fallen ill near Sungai Merab.

"He said that he would like to tag along as the area is under his parliamentary constituency. That is all. That is why I say allegations of a so-called order from the Umno president is slander.”

Both Zahid and vice-president Datuk Seri Mohamad Khaled Nordin also came out to deny the claims as well as the existence of the Umno MT WhatsApp group in question.

Yesterday, news portal Agenda Daily shared several WhatsApp screenshots of conversations, after they were leaked on social media, purportedly showing Zahid instructing Umno leaders to invite DAP representatives to every programme organised by the party.

"The president asked everyone to invite DAP representatives to their programmes. We have to prepare ourselves to accept DAP, because I think that is what’s best for now,” read an excerpt from the alleged WhatsApp conversation.

Last night, Zahid touched on the matter in a Facebook post, accusing "devils who work hard to slander” Umno of being behind the leak.

"It has only been two days since we left the month of Ramadan but the devil who brings slander is working hard to defame Umno.

"There is no WhatsApp group as shown in the screenshots and the Agenda Daily report is also vicious slander against Umno,” he wrote on his official Facebook page.