Annuar: Zahid kept Umno in the dark over letter backing Anwar

 

Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had penned his support for Anwar Ibrahim to topple the Perikatan Nasional Plus government on Oct 11.

This was alleged by Annuar Musa, who was removed as BN secretary-general yesterday.

The Ketereh MP told an hour-long press conference today that he had verified the existence of Zahid's letter with various sources.

"The letter mentioned toppling the present federal government, changing the prime minister and promised loyalty to Anwar.

"We (as a party) never discussed this. The (Umno) supreme council never discussed this because we wanted to avoid a bigger calamity.

"This is my main contention with (the BN) chairperson (Zahid). The grassroots don't know," he added.

Annuar said Umno MPs were not told the party would be backing Anwar and those MPs had repeatedly stated their disagreement to working with the PKR president.

"This was done without the party's consent. It was an individual decision," Annuar added.

Officially, Umno denied the existence of such a letter.

Anwar announced on Sept 23 and again on Oct 13 last year that he had the numbers to form a new government.

At the time, Zahid said "many" Umno MPs had expressed their desire to back Anwar as prime minister and this lent credence to the PKR president's claim.

However, nothing materialised over the next few months.

Anwar also failed to prove his support in Parliament when Budget 2021 was put to vote. 

It was widely speculated that the PKR president had secured written commitments from some Umno MPs and this was submitted to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

However, the king stated that Anwar did not furnish a list of MPs to back his bid for the premiership. - Mkini