Zahid denies bid to oust Muhyiddin a power grab

 

Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has denied that the party’s decision to pull support from Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was an attempt to gain power.

He insisted that the move was instead meant to help steer the country in the right direction so that the “people’s aspirations” can get back on track.

“Therefore, it is not true at all that what Umno has decided was because we thirst for power.

“If we thirst for power, this is not the way. It would be better to hang on to power we already have,” Zahid said on Facebook today.

Yesterday, Zahid declared that Umno was withdrawing its support from Muhyiddin with immediate effect.

He also urged the prime minister to resign to make way for an interim successor.

While he did not name who should take over, critics have accused Zahid and the Umno supreme council of trying to seize power for themselves.

Zahid was previously accused of working with PKR president Anwar Ibrahim to topple the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government. However, he has announced that Umno would not support efforts to put Anwar in power.

Yesterday, former Umno president Najib Abdul Razak stressed that the supreme council's decision was to retract support from Muhyiddin and not the PN government.

This reduced the possible options, suggesting that Umno may seek to take over the leadership of the government without drastic changes to the parties in the ruling coalition.

However, critics have also chastised Zahid for citing government failures as a reason for withdrawing support, when Umno is part of the government.

Responding to this, Zahid said there is a subtle attempt to turn Umno into a scapegoat and blame the party for the PN government’s failures.

“It’s as though Umno has to be held responsible for the PN government’s failures.

“(This is despite) the aid for the people, which is not much, being announced because Umno was forced to pressure (the government),” he said.

He also said Umno cannot help cover up the PN government’s failures.

The withdrawal of support for Muhyiddin follows the appointment of Umno vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Sembrong MP Hishammuddin Hussein as deputy prime minister and senior minister, respectively.

Ismail Sabri and Hishammuddin are believed to be in opposition to the Umno president within the party and it remains unclear whether the Umno ministers will continue to serve in the PN government following the party’s withdrawal.

Most Umno MPs are also believed to be aligned to the duo, putting a damper on the withdrawal of support. - Mkini