Wanita UMNO today urged the authorities to take legal action against people who accept foreign funds aimed at toppling the government.

Its head Tan Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said the opposition was even willing to accept funds from foreigners just to create chaos in the country.

"Ladies, George Soros is back. He is the culprit behind the drastic fall of the ringgit in 1997.

"According to reports by DC Leaks, Soros paid for other people to topple the Malaysian government," she said when presenting her keynote address at the UMNO Wanita General Assembly, here today.

Speaking to the 977 women delegates, Shahrizat's speech touched on the various threats against the party and the Barisan Nasional government arising from foreign intervention.

She said these foreign hands never eased up on their efforts to split the Malays and destroy their political dominance.

"Look at how sly they are, claiming that the 1Malaysia Development Berhad is a financial scandal, that even the US Department of Justice has intervened.

"Whereas we can all see that it is the political agenda of the opposition in their efforts to topple Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak as UMNO president and prime minister and to bring down the Barisan Nasional government which was democratically elected," said Shahrizat.

Worse yet, she said, the foreign powers used the media to defame all the government's efforts and depict Malaysia as facing a very bad economic situation.

"Several media have become their agents of spreading defamation which are intended to instigate the people against the government. Do not be fooled by this trick," she said.

She added that there were also threats in "civil movements" like Bersih, which sought to cripple the economy and politics of the nation just like the chaos in Egypt during the Arab Spring.

"We are being threatened so badly, if we are not strong and not alert, we will not only lose the party, we will lose a country. What shall we tell our children and grandchildren then" she said.

Shahrizat said what was important was that the majority of the people refused to be drawn into Bersih's trap which was reportedly sponsored by foreign funds for the sake of personal political interests. -- BERNAMA