The Malaysian Insight

AS long as Ahmad Zahid Hamidi remains as party president, Penang Umno will continue to support him, state party chairman Musa Sheikh Fadzir said.

“We will support him as long as he is still the president. That is the practice since before.

“In the past, there were calls for Pak Lah and Najib to resign when they were party president.

“But we stood by them as long as they remained party chief,” he said referring to Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib Razak, the last two Umno presidents who had faced pressures as Barisan Nasional began to suffer losses in the 12th and 13th general elections despite retaining Putrajaya.

Abdullah stepped down in 2009 in favour of Najib.

In May this year, following the shocking defeat of Umno and BN in the 14th general election, Najib resigned as president.

Before his resignation, there were already calls for him to leave over the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal.

Zahid, who was popularly voted in as new Umno president in late June, has his own troubles and is facing 45 counts of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money-laundering involving RM114.15 million.

Of the total, RM21.25 million was allegedly for kickbacks for approving projects related to foreign worker recruitment when he was home minister.

His critics in the party said Zahid was bereft of ideas on how to lead Umno as an opposition party and have failed to stop its elected reps from leaving.

On Wednesday, half of Umno’s MPs and members in Sabah left the party. The party has also lost 17 MPs since the May elections and is now down to 37 parliamentary seats.

Speaking to reporters in Sg Dua in Butterworth today, Musa said Umno was a democratic party where members have the right to criticise their leaders and even demand for their resignations.

“Anyone can criticise and demand for resignations. Even my own division members can tell me to resign as leader.

“But as long as the majority still wants me to stay, I will carry on. That is how it is.

“Power struggles also happen in Pakatan Harapan,” he said. – December 15, 2018.