Hours after the audience of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim with Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah on Tuesday, where he claimed that he had the majority in the Dewan Rakyat, the Umno supreme council announced that the party was reconsidering its support to the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.
Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan told the media that they were going to set new terms for continuing its cooperation with the PN government.
This has since courted speculations over what these new terms would be. Among them was the allegation that Umno might want Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to drop charges against a number of its leaders, particularly its president, who are all facing criminal cases in court.
However, this has been denied by party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
"(The new terms) have nothing to do with court cases," he told Malaysiakini in a text message. "It’s all about Umno as a party."
The Bagan Datuk MP, however, did not elaborate when asked to cite what their new demands are, including whether they are seeking more representation in the cabinet.
Muhyiddin's position as the country's top executive is in choppy waters as he has a razor-thin majority of two seats in Parliament.
Criminal charges
While Umno and its counterparts in BN are not part of PN, they are currently backing the ruling government, enabling the Muhyiddin-led coalition to hold on to power.
However, certain quarters in the Malay-based party are unhappy that Bersatu is calling the shots at the federal level as well as several other states despite Umno having more seats. This has led to calls for Umno to ditch their cooperation with Bersatu.
Zahid is currently facing 47 criminal charges, comprising 12 charges of criminal breach of trust (CBT), eight corruption charges and 27 charges of money laundering.
Besides Zahid, other Umno leaders facing criminal trials in court are Putrajaya MP Tengku Adnan Mansor and Baling MP Abdul Azeez Rahim.
In July, former Umno president and former premier Najib Abdul Razak was found guilty of seven charges related to the RM42 million in a case involving SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1MDB.
The charges concerned abuse of power, CBT and money laundering.
The Pekan MP is appealing the convictions and sentences at the Court of Appeal. In addition to this, he is facing a slew of other charges relating to the 1MDB scandal. - Mkini
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