KUALA LUMPUR • A banner calling for Prime Minister Najib Razak to step down was strung up outside an Umno office in Gelang Patah, Johor, according to reports yesterday.

The banner in Malay carried the Umno logo and a picture of Datuk Seri Najib, who is also Umno president, in traditional Malay garb, according to The Malaysian Insider.

The website provided this translation: "We Umno Pulai Jaya 2 branch have lost our trust in the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. You should quit, if you have dignity, or accept losing the 14th general election as a result of your ego and greed."

In a play on words using Mr Najib's 1Malaysia slogan "People First, Performance Now", the banner also said "Pocket First, People Sacrificed".

The Malaysian Insider said the banner was taken down on Monday, three days after it went up, but pictures of it have been making the rounds on social media and on mobile chat applications.

A statement issued by the Gelang Patah Umno division acknowledged the existence of the banner but stressed that it was an "isolated incident".

The Pulai Jaya 2 branch is located within the Gelang Patah parliamentary constituency, whose MP is opposition Democratic Action Party stalwart Lim Kit Siang.

In a separate development yesterday, Johor's Crown Prince advised people not to fall victim to any trickery on either side of the political divide.

Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim said people must be wise in discerning and making the right decisions, The Star reported.

"Political language was designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable," he said in a post on the Johor Southern Tigers Facebook page yesterday.

He said the purpose of his statements and quotes on the page was not to create tension but to educate Johoreans on political trickery.

"The people must be wise to analyse it. Johor must not be caught in the political games and mess," he said.