Umno No 2: We appealed to Dr M not to dissolve Umno during meet

Mohamad Hassan clarified that he and four other Umno leaders did not meet Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to discuss switching parties.

The Umno deputy president said the five appealed to Mahathir not to dissolve the party, which the latter had led for more than two decades.

“It was just a courtesy call,” Mohamad told Malaysiakini this afternoon.

“Tun M (Mahathir) said Umno will be dissolved. We appealed to him not to do so,” he added.

The former Negeri Sembilan menteri besar described the meeting as cordial.

“Tun received us. Because I worked under him. 'Belanja kita satay and macam-macam' (he treated us to satay and other food items).

“The world is not only about politics. It is about relationship. We paid him a courtesy call and at the same time we said, 'Please don't dissolve Umno'. He promised not to do so,” Mohamad added.

In a Facebook posting earlier, veteran newsman A Kadir Jasin said the meeting took place in October after photographs of Mahathir and the Umno leaders went viral on social media.

Others at the meeting were former federal territories minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, former Perlis menteri besar Shahidan Kassim, former urban wellbeing, housing and local government minister Noh Omar and former domestic trade, co-operatives and consumerism minister Hamzah Zainudin.

The photographs emerged after yesterday's exodus of more than a dozen Sabah Umno lawmakers and amid reports that elected representatives of Umno in the peninsula might follow suit.

The former Sabah Umno lawmakers had pledged their support for Mahathir.

This afternoon, former Puteri Umno chief and Masjid Tanah MP Mas Ermieyati Samsudin announced that she has joined Bersatu.

 - Mkini