The Malaysian Insight

ONLY six Umno Supreme Council members refused to back Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in withdrawing support for Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, said party sources. 

A council member told The Malaysian Insight that the six had refused to sign a support letter that Zahid wanted before their hybrid committee meeting on Wednesday. 

The source said the Umno president had urged Supreme Council members before their meeting to sign their support for his move to retract support for Muhyiddin. 

“Before the meeting, Zahid called every member to sign a letter like a statutory declaration to agree on what he wanted to do and what he wanted to discuss such as withdrawing from Perikatan Nasional and not supporting Muhyiddin. 

“Of the 58 members, only six people did not sign the letter. So Zahid had the majority support with him,” he said. 

He added that the results showed that the majority supported the resolution to retract support for Muhyiddin, and that the views of the six objecting members were no longer considered important.  

According to sources, lawmakers Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (Pasir Salak) and Zahidi Zainul Abidin (Padang Besar), as well as Puteri Umno leader Dira Abu Zahar were among the six who did not support the move. 

The source also said the six didn’t sign the letter because they felt that the move to reject Muhyiddin was a form of manipulation. 

“Besides, they also didn’t understand what was the president’s plan. 

“An example in the letter mentioned that Umno wants to withdraw from the PN government but the four states with Umno together with Bersatu want to remain. So that’s one of the questions raised,” he said. 

Sources also said that the meeting went smoothly and there was no tense situation as reported by the media. 

“The meeting went smoothly, there was no tense situation. There were only a few differences of opinion because one of the things discussed was when Umno wanted to leave PN. 

“The president wanted to leave PN immediately but there were Supreme Council members who did not agree for now because the time was not right. So there was a bit of a clash,” he said. 

Following the four-hour meeting on Wednesday, Zahid announced that the party was immediately withdrawing its support for Muhyiddin over the prime minister’s failure to control the Covid-19 pandemic, revive the economy and take care of the wellbeing of the people. 

He had also said that Muhyiddin had abused emergency powers to suspend parliamentary democracy. 

Zahid said an interim prime minister should be appointed until the country succeeds in tackling the pandemic and achieves herd immunity through vaccination before holding the 15th general election. 

He, however, did not name a candidate for the role. 

Zahid also said that Umno MPs will be allowed to vote according to their conscience in a confidence vote against Muhyiddin. 

The meeting was held shortly after Muhyiddin had appointed two Umno leaders, Ismail Sabri Yaakob as deputy prime minister and Hishammuddin Hussein as senior minister. 

Another Supreme Council member, Ahmad Said, meanwhile said a total of 50 members supported the decision during the meeting. 

“In terms of Supreme Council members, there are 56 people and 50 of them supported the motion to withdraw support for Muhyiddin. So those who support this are the majority. 

“And not supporting is normal in a meeting as there are different views but there is no tension or anything,” said the Terengganu Umno chief. 

Muhyiddin remains the prime minister despite Umno’s move following the decision of Umno lawmakers to continue supporting him and the government. – July 12, 2021.