Zahid: Our opponents are 'shopping' to stay in power

 

Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today claimed that the political party's enemies are "shopping" to "stay in power".

In his usual cryptic style, Zahid made the allegation on his Facebook page without naming the "enemies", but he left some clues.

The "enemies" that he referred to were those who focussed on Umno strongholds during the last general election in 2018.

"(During their rallies), they would disparage Umno leaders with all sorts of allegations. Then, they would mesmerise their audience with claims that they do not want to destroy Umno but instead 'save' Umno.

"They claimed that if they win, Umno will be saved by the new government. I am told that these speeches - that were full of hypocrisy and deceit - were well received," said Zahid.

However, Zahid said that even after losing the last elections, Umno continued to be slandered, and there were attempts to "completely destroy" the party.

"We are aware that there will be karma for those who win elections through deceit, lies and slander.

"Now, they are doing whatever they can to trick the public and even 'shopping' here and there to hang on to power," he said.

In this context, it is very likely that Zahid was referring to Bersatu, who was Umno's enemy during the 2018 elections, only to forge an alliance two years later in the form of Perikatan Nasional.

Zahid is the leader of a faction within Umno that no longer wants to cooperate with Bersatu during the next elections.

However, the Umno's official position will only be made clear after the party's annual national delegates meeting on March 27 and 28.

Three key issues to be decided by the assembly are:

1. Whether to strengthen relations with PAS;

2. Whether to cut ties with Bersatu by the next general election; and,

3. Whether to lobby for elections to be held as early as the first quarter of 2021.

The annual meeting was supposed to be held last December but was postponed twice due to the Covid-19 pandemic. - Mkini