Don’t forget the white flag campaign, Puad tells Muhyiddin

Umno Supreme Council member Puad Zarkashi ridiculed Perikatan Nasional chairman Muhyiddin Yassin for touting his tenure as prime minister as a success.

PETALING JAYA: 

An Umno leader today rubbished former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s claim that Perikatan Nasional (PN) would do a better job of governing the nation than the unity government.

Umno Supreme Council member Puad Zarkashi also criticised the PN chairman for touting his 17 months in the top office as a success, citing what he described as apparent failures in Muhyiddin’s administration.

This includes the “half-baked” Covid-19 lockdowns which failed to lower the pandemic’s death rate but heavily impacted the economy, he said.

“The height of Muhyiddin’s failure was the white flag campaign across the country in 2021. Does Muhyiddin have a short-term memory problem?” he said in a Facebook post.

The white flag campaign was a community-driven movement in 2021 started on social media by Malaysians for those in need of food and other essentials.

It encouraged affected families to hang a white flag or cloth in front of their homes so that neighbours could render immediate assistance.

It came at a time when many were struggling to put food on the table amid an indefinite lockdown that resulted in job losses and slashed incomes.

Muhyiddin’s administration drew brickbats from netizens and opposition MPs, who blamed the government for failing to look after the people amid the prolonged lockdowns, forcing them to raise white flags.

Yesterday, Muhyiddin said Malaysians were going through a difficult time with the rising cost of goods, stagnant incomes, and reduced subsidies.

The Bersatu president claimed that PN could “fix the situation”, citing the coalition’s achievements in managing the Covid-19 pandemic during its time in power.

The Pagoh MP also said that people would still express gratitude to him even today for the initiatives his government had introduced, including a moratorium on loan repayments and withdrawals from EPF.

Puad however said that the loan moratorium and EPF withdrawals were the ideas of former prime minister Najib Razak, and a condition of Barisan Nasional’s support for Muhyiddin. - FMT