BOMBSHELL – MUHYIDDIN PREPARES FOR IMMINENT LOSS OF POWER – TO DISCUSS JOINING UMNO TONIGHT: EMERGENCY MEETING CALLED TONIGHT TO FORMALIZE MAHATHIR & GANG’S SACKING – ‘IF IT IS TRUE, THE RIVER WILL START FLOWING TO THE SEA’

BERSATU is expected to formalise the removal of Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his faction at the party’s emergency supreme council meeting tonight, a source told The Malaysian Insight.

The source said the party will also discuss how Bersatu can join Umno.

“Although no agenda was sent about tonight’s meeting, we are expecting this,” said one supreme council member.

“Muhyiddin Yassin needs to finalise the sackings and legitimise it through the supreme council. That’s why supreme council members aligned to Dr Mahathir were also removed today.”

Two of Dr Mahathir’s supporters – supreme council member Akhramsyah Muamar Ubaidah Sanusi and disputed secretary-general Marzuki Yahya – were terminated from their positions today.

Akhramsyah was removed from the supreme council while Marzuki was removed as Penang Bersatu chief.

Their removals follow Dr Mahathir and four other Bersatu leaders and MPs last week.

The leaders that were removed include deputy president Mukhriz Mahathir (Jerlun MP), youth chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman (Muar), supreme council member Maszlee Malik (Simpang Renggam) and Amiruddin Hamzah (Kubang Pasu).

“I expect the supreme council to also discuss how Bersatu can join Umno,” said the supreme council member.

This follows a Sinar Harian report today that Bersatu leaders are currently in talks with Umno to join the party.

The report said Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang are open to allowing Muhyiddin to continue as the prime minister if Bersatu joins Umno.

Bersatu was formed in September 2016 by Dr Mahathir and Muhyiddin to fight Umno in the last general election. The party later joined Pakatan Harapan to defeat Barisan Nasional in 2018.

But less than two years after winning the election, Muhyiddin pulled Bersatu out from Pakatan Harapan and formed the Perikatan Nasional government with Umno, PAS, Gabungan Parti Sarawak and several smaller Sabah parties. – THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT

Youth exco: Muhyiddin rejected Zahid’s offer for Bersatu to join Umno

Bersatu Youth exco Muzammil Ismail revealed that Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had offered splinter party Bersatu to return to Umno.

However, he said Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin did not agree.

He told Malaysiakini this when asked about reports there were discussions between Bersatu and Muafakat Nasional (BN-PAS) to enable Bersatu to return to Umno in the near future.

“Bersatu joining Umno is not true at all, even though Zahid did offer because he wanted to strengthen Malay parties.

“But Muhyiddin and the Bersatu supreme council did not agree and it is better for us to be in our own parties because of different ideologies even though our foundation is the same that is a Malay and Muslim-dominant party.

“The main need right now is to strengthen and unite Bersatu after our internal crisis. That is more accurate,” said Muzammil.

It was previously reported that political analyst Ahmad Atory Hussain claimed there were discussions between Bersatu and Muafakat Nasional on this matter.

Atory said discussions had entered a serious stage as Zahid and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang were considering allowing Muhyiddin to continue as prime minister even if Bersatu returned to Umno.

The analyst said the discussions became more serious when Muhyiddin and Bersatu were no longer overshadowed by its disputed chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad as well as disputed deputy president Mukhriz Mahathir.

“Even though Muhyiddin was fired from Umno, there are many leaders who still support him because of the relationship between them.

“I have also been made to understand that Bersatu joining Umno will be finalised at a Muafakat Nasional meeting even though there are efforts to make official the Perikatan Nasional cooperation.

“On Muhyiddin’s position, if Hadi and Zahid agree to give him and Bersatu space to stay on as prime minister by consensus, I count that as a good decision for the sake of Malay and Muslim unity,” he added.

Umno supreme council member denies Zahid made offer to Bersatu

However, Umno supreme council member Armand Azha Abu Hanifah (photo) denied the claims that Zahid had offered Bersatu to rejoin Umno.

He said the matter had never been brought up in their supreme council meetings so far.

“First of all, as an Umno supreme council member, for now this matter has not been discussed in the supreme council meetings.

“Any offer from Umno has to receive the agreement from a supreme council decision especially what has been said by the Bersatu leaders.

“As the Bersatu leadership, they can ask their party president which is Muhyiddin about these questions playing in their minds,” Armand said when contacted by Malaysiakini.

He said the main issue now is to strengthen all the parties within Perikatan Nasional (PN) which is now leading Putrajaya.

Meanwhile, Bersatu supreme council member Rais Hussin (photo) said the Bersatu leadership was not informed of such discussions.

“I do not have any knowledge about such discussions. The supreme council has not been informed of such an initiative.

“Whether it is true and official, only time will tell. If it is true, the river will start flowing to the sea,” he told Malaysiakini. – MKINI

THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT / MKINI