Nazri believes his boss has returned to Muhyiddin's fold after egging rebellion

 

Umno's Padang Rengas MP Nazri Abdul Aziz believes his party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has returned to Muhyiddin Yassin's fold after initially encouraging a rebellion in the Perikatan Nasional government.

In the face of the uncertainty, Muhyiddin had tried to propose a state of emergency but was turned down by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

Proponents have said the state of emergency is to combat the Covid-19 pandemic but critics claimed that Muhyiddin is trying to pre-empt the collapse of his government if a group of Umno MPs pull out of his government.

While Zahid has not gone on record about the status of his support for Muhyiddin, he appeared to have given the "green light" for a rebellion shortly after PKR president Anwar Ibrahim announced that he had secured a majority to form the new government. 

Hours after that announcement, he lent credence to Anwar's claim by revealing that many Umno MPs were supporting Anwar and that he could not stop them.

Zahid's loyalties further came into question after a letter informing the palace that Umno was withdrawing support for Muhyiddin in favour of Anwar was circulated on social media, prompting Zahid's aide to dismiss it as fake. 

However, Nazri (photo) acknowledged the existence of a letter but added that the situation has now changed.

He indicated that there have been positive signs as Zahid had retracted the letter.

"You know, Zahid wrote a letter to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong but then he never consulted us. Our backbenchers are solid (behind Muhyiddin),” he told Malaysiakini when contacted today.

"Twenty-three of us are backbenchers including Zahid. Zahid, as you know, has retracted his letter and that he supports Muhyiddin now," he said.

Apart from the 23 backbenchers, BN has another 19 MPs who are in the government.

Nazri said he believes the 19 with positions are solidly behind Muhyiddin and he will work to convince the remaining 23 who do not have positions in the government.

He said he is currently in the process of persuading the 23 backbenchers but that he is confident he will be able to get them to maintain their support for Muhyiddin’s administration.

Zahid did not respond to Malaysiakini about the authenticity of the letter.

There had been speculation that Muhyiddin's government was under threat as rebels within his government may vote down his Budget 2021 next month.

Muhyiddin is believed to have the razor-thin majority support of 113 MPs out of 222 in the Dewan Rakyat.

If three or more MPs were to switch their allegiances to someone else, he would lose the simple majority needed to maintain the government.

The Agong, in announcing his decision not to impose a state of emergency, also discouraged efforts to destabilise the current government.  - Mkini