Bersatu won’t join Muafakat Nasional, says Muhyiddin

 

Muhyiddin Yassin says there are benefits to not working with Umno.

PETALING JAYA: Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin said the party will not join Muafakat Nasional (MN), the alliance established by Umno and PAS.

Bersatu agreed to join MN in August 2020, but their membership was not formalised following a worsening spat between Bersatu and Umno.

“I’ve already forgotten about MN. There’s no need to bring it up anymore,” he said in a statement.

“After all, Umno also decided during its general assembly (last year) not to work with Bersatu. So what is there to bring up?”

He added that Bersatu had already decided not to join MN.

“There are benefits to Bersatu not working with Umno. Bersatu won’t get caught up in the moral issues that plague Umno leaders.”

Muhyiddin was previously reported as saying that he believed the party’s participation in MN was part of a “grander coalition” that was needed to help the country “move forward”.

In his statement today, Muhyiddin also said he could not understand former prime minister Najib Razak’s accusation that Bersatu-PN betrayed Umno in the Sabah state elections, which the Pekan MP said caused the failure of MN.

Muhyiddin was responding to a Facebook post by Najib on Saturday that the “betrayal” in the Sabah elections in September 2020 led to Bersatu’s fallout with Umno and spoiled its chances of joining MN.

In the post, he said the betrayal came about after Umno and PAS leaders had sent a letter in August 2020 inviting Bersatu to join MN.

“The deal fell apart when Umno felt it had been betrayed, especially in the seat negotiations in the run-up to the Sabah state elections.

“Less than three weeks after the letter from PAS and Umno, PN fielded candidates to fight Barisan Nasional in 17 seats in the Sabah polls. They also planted six independent candidates to split our votes,” Najib had claimed.

Muhyiddin also addressed the issue of the Sabah chief minister candidate after the polls, saying he spoke to Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to name someone from Umno.

“But he did not name anyone until the end of the campaign period for the state elections.

“That is why I named Hajiji (Noor) as the candidate from PN if the coalition wins the largest number of seats among the component parties that form Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS).”

Muhyiddin added that since PN won 17 seats in the elections, followed by BN (14) and Parti Bersatu Sabah (7), he nominated Hajiji as the chief minister.

The nomination, according to him was agreed upon by all GRS assemblymen, including those from Umno.

“Did I betray anyone? No, I did not. I was transparent and upfront with Umno.

“Don’t twist the facts, Najib. What happened in the state elections did not cause the failure of MN,” he said. - FMT