Zuraida says she's staying in Bersatu, report suggests she's been sidelined

Bersatu supreme council member Zuraida Kamaruddin said that despite rumours circulating about her position in Bersatu, she will continue with her business as usual.

“There has been nothing official (coming) from the party.

“Loads of sources are saying otherwise, but nothing has been communicated to me, officially or unofficially. I am observing all the reports,” she was quoted as saying in a TheVibes article today.

Zuraida said her commitments as a minister prevented her from attending her party’s recent supreme council meetings.

“I recently came back from an official round-trip overseas, which included London, Dubai and Jeddah, on government business.

“It was unfortunate that I was unable to make it for the meeting,” she said, adding that she would attend when possible.

She added that she was on good terms with Bersatu chief Muhyiddin Yassin.

Meanwhile, an article at a different publication suggests that things may not be entirely rosy in Zuraida’s camp.

Removed from leadership chat group

In an Utusan Malaysia article published today, a source claimed that Zuraida was removed from a Whatsapp group comprising over 30 Bersatu supreme leadership council members, including Muhyiddin.

“This WhatsApp group consists of the presidents from top to bottom, this is to prevent the party's secrets from being known to Zuraida. She was removed from the group the day after Bersatu’s supreme council meeting.

“Everyone in the meeting agreed with the decision to remove Zuraida because we do not want disloyal individuals within the party,” the source reportedly said.

However, the source claimed that Zuraida has not responded since being removed from the Whatsapp group.

It was reported on Wednesday that Bersatu's supreme council discussed firing Zuraida and others in the party over alleged involvement with Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM), a new political outfit set up by a group of former PKR leaders known to be aligned with her.

However, according to supreme council member Muhammad Faiz Na'aman, the council had not made any decision pending further investigation by the party.

Zuraida used to be a PKR vice-president before the Anwar Ibrahim-led party sacked her for her role in 2020's Sheraton Move that caused the collapse of the then Pakatan Harapan federal government.

She then joined Bersatu together with former PKR deputy president Azmin Ali, who PKR also sacked over his role in the political coup. Both of them were later appointed to the Bersatu supreme council.

Since then, Zuraida was rumoured to be planning to form a new political party. The rumour grew stronger when several former PKR leaders aligned to Zuraida and Azmin founded PBM late last year.

In December, Zuraida's former political secretary, Nor Hizwan Ahmad, announced that he had quit Bersatu to join PBM and that he was bringing along 53,000 members of Penggerak Komuniti Negara (PKN), an NGO linked to Zuraida.

PBM maintained that Zuraida was not on its membership list and had not received any application from Zuraida to join them. - Mkini