Muhyiddin wrong to appoint ex-Umno man to party post, says Bersatu leader

 The leader claims Muhyiddin Yassin bypassed the Bersatu Supreme Council to appoint Ali Mohamad to the newly-created post of deputy information chief.

A Bersatu leader has taken party president Muhyiddin Yassin to task for apparently creating the post of ‘deputy information chief’ for ex-Umno man Ali Mohamad.

PETALING JAYA: 

A Bersatu leader has criticised party president Muhyiddin Yassin over the appointment of Ali Mohamad as its deputy information chief, claiming the decision was made unilaterally.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the leader expressed surprise at the appointment since Ali is under investigation for graft and is presently being held in remand.

The leader said Muhyiddin bypassed the Bersatu Supreme Council to appoint Ali, despite the fact that the former Umno man only joined the party in April last year.

“This appointment was never approved by Bersatu’s Supreme Council. Why was such special treatment given by Muhyiddin?” he said.

He also said the post had never existed previously and appears to have been newly-created.

“Never in Bersatu’s history has there been a position called ‘deputy information chief’. That position was created just for Ali,” he told FMT.

“Muhyiddin must take responsibility for agreeing to appoint Ali as the deputy information chief even though talk of the problems Ali was facing had already been widely known before the appointment,” the leader said.

His criticism comes in the wake of a corruption probe involving Ali, who served as the Senate’s deputy president from December 2020 to May 2023.

Ali was also the former Melaka Umno deputy chairman and contested the Sungai Udang state seat in the 2021 Melaka election, losing to Dr Aleef Yusof by a narrow margin of 530 votes.

The former Tangga Batu Umno chief is under remand until April 20, following his arrest by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

An MACC source was previously reported as saying that a former Senate deputy president had allegedly accepted bribes between 2021 and 2023 purportedly in connection with the award of a concession for land reclamation work off the Melaka coast at Kota Laksamana.

However, Bersatu’s information chief Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz has questioned the arrest, saying Ali was not one of the decision makers, either on behalf of the state or federal governments, in the award of the concession.

He also questioned the timing of the arrest, telling Malaysiakini that it only took place after Ali had left Umno and joined Bersatu, suggesting that it may be yet another case of selective prosecution. - FMT