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It was revealed at last night's public forum that Utusan Melayu employees had recently held a sembahyang hajat to pray for their wish-come-true pertaining to the NeST-UM merger.

Today, both NSTP and Utusan Melayu groups informed Bursa Malaysia, here and here, that the merger has been aborted as both parties "were not able to reach a scheme of merger that would be beneficial to both parties and its stakeholders".

Agencie Presse France (AFP) describes it as a major setback for Umno president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who was advocating for the merger, echoed by his deputy Najib Razak.

But a speaker at last night's forum had likened it as a vote of no confidence on Umno's No. 1 and No. 2 when the majority of the party's Supreme Council members rose to voice against the merger.

The speaker said this clearly showed the existence of a rift between the interest of party members and the leadership.

If you can recall, Rais Yatim was quoted by Utusan Malaysia as saying that he would become "dayus" if he closed an eye and allowed Utusan Melayu to be taken over by another party.

Rocky has explained in his blog that "dayus" is a very strong word to use on any man. Because "a man becomes 'dayus' when he knows, for a fact, that his wife is sleeping with another man and does not or refuses to confront his wife or her lover".

According to AgendaDaily, Senator Dr. Norraesah Mohamad hasd opposed the merger by equating it to marrying a healthy person to another that is HIV infected. The Senator, howeverm didn';t specify which one was the high-risk partner.