Umno veep not privy to purported attempt of dumping 4 ministers

 

Umno vice-president Mohamed Khaled Nordin said he had not discussed any proposal to dump four Umno ministers from the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.

This was in response to a Suara.TV report which claimed that the removal of the four ministers was among the preconditions set by Umno for it to remain in the PN government.

The four were chosen by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to become ministers even though they are not ranking members in the Umno leadership.

Of the five most senior Umno leaders including president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, deputy president Mohamad Hassan and vice-presidents Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Mahdzir Khalid and Khaled, only Ismail was made a minister.

"It was not discussed," Khaled said when asked about the purported pre-condition.

Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan and Umno treasurer-general Tengku Adnan Mansor have been in preliminary negotiations with the prime minister to extract concessions. 

This is after Umno declared that it may quit the PN government if Muhyiddin did not accede to their demands after complaining that he had sidelined them in the government.

However, Ahmad has been tight-lipped about the negotiations.

Asked about the alleged precondition to dump the four Umno ministers, Ahmad merely said: "I have not disclosed the details of the negotiation in any statement".

The negotiating team is only expected to brief the Umno supreme council next Tuesday where a meeting is scheduled to be held in Pahang.

The four who are not part of the Umno supreme council but were appointed into the cabinet are Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, Health Minister Dr Adham Baba and National Unity Minister Halimah Mohamed Sadique.

Muhyiddin has a fragile majority in the Dewan Rakyat, controlling only 113 out of the 222 MPs in the House.

The defection of three MPs is enough to bring down his government. Umno has 39 MPs.

In a bid to rescue his government, Muhyiddin has asked Umno to provide, in writing, its list of demands. - Mkini