With Umno mulling withdrawing support, Muhyiddin's govt on last legs: Source

 

The announcement by Umno’s political bureau last night that it was considering withdrawing its support for the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government unless new conditions are agreed to, is not a threat but a mature decision, said a party source.

The high-level source told Malaysiakini that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's administration was on "its last legs" because the decision to consider parting ways with his administration was one made by the party as a whole. 

“Umno which supported the PN government as led by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin before this, is different from the one that made yesterday’s decision, which is based on a thorough decision by the party.

“This is because Umno gave its backing to Muhyiddin only in terms of support from its elected representatives. But the announcement to reconsider withdrawing from PN was a collective decision by the party.

“So I can say that the Muhyiddin government is on its last legs,” the source said. 

The source revealed this while explaining the decision made at last night’s Umno political bureau meeting in Kuala Lumpur which was attended by all Umno state chairpersons except Sabah Umno chief Bung Moktar Radin.

The source also listed a number of reasons in the past six months which pushed Umno to make such a call.

“Ever since the formation of the PN government, Umno is the only party in the coalition to become weak and progressively directionless. All the other parties in the PN coalition were the opposition except Bersatu.

“Ever since the formation of the government, Umno, which has the majority (elected representatives) in the coalition was sidelined in the cabinet. We already lost the prime minister position even though we are the most dominant party, but we were not given the deputy prime minister position either and all the cabinet positions (Umno got) are not so important.

“The ones who lost to the point of forfeiting their deposits in the 14th general election were given senior minister positions. But Umno was given the portfolios of less important ministries. The ones who got one or two important ministries, they do not hold any important positions (in Umno) nor are they (Umno) supreme council members," the source said. 

“This is a strategy to weaken Umno by breathing life into leaders who are not in line with the (Umno) top leadership,” the source added.

For the record, Umno was given nine cabinet positions in the PN administration.

However, the PN government as led by Muhyiddin was not well-received by Umno grassroots after criticisms that Umno was not given any important ministries to hold.

“At the state level, we lost the Perak menteri besar seat even though we had the strength of 25 assemblypersons. The government-linked company (GLC) positions and council member positions were all dominated by Bersatu and (Senior Minister Azmin Ali’s) gang.

“Most recently, we lost the Sabah chief ministership even though we were the party that won the most state seats compared to Bersatu.

“Even sadder still, Umno had to face independent candidates which were backed by those who had something to gain.

“The conclusion is that Bersatu is developing better with Umno’s strength whereas Umno is becoming more sidelined,” the source said.

In the Sabah state election, Umno won 14 state seats compared to Bersatu with only 11 seats.

However, it was Sabah Bersatu chief Hajiji Mohd Noor who was appointed the Sabah chief minister.

There was also speculation that Sabah Umno and BN leaders were unhappy about the distribution of portfolios.

When asked whether Umno will remain with Muhyiddin if their new conditions were met, the source said it is still too early to say.

This is because some of the conditions might be considered "heavy" for the prime minister to agree to. 

“Maybe Umno will ask for all the seats which were won by Umno parliamentarians who later joined Bersatu.

“We also cannot discount the parliamentary constituencies of Azmin’s group where Umno may be better suited to contest against Pakatan Harapan in the next election because we got the second highest votes in the 14th general election.

“Is Muhyiddin willing to sacrifice the leaders from Umno and Azmin’s group to remain in government? That is why I said the Muhyiddin government is on its last legs," the source said. 

“Whatever it is, we will wait and see the latest development after the Umno supreme council meeting on Oct 17." - Mkini