UMNO is grateful to Bersatu for taking in its defectors who are like a “virus that destroys”, said Khaled Nordin.

The Umno vice-president said the party was not bothered that it had been dumped by its members of  parliament, assemblymen and senators for Bersatu.

“I wish to thank Bersatu. Accept the Umno members who joined Bersatu as a sincere gift from all of us in Umno.

“Believe me their departure will not cause us any loss of sleep but Bersatu now has to be on guard at night,” he said in a statement today.

His statement follows the resignation of 17 MPs, nine assemblymen and two senators from Umno.
 
The parliamentarians declared themselves to be independents but are expected to join Bersatu eventually.
 
On Tuesday, bowing to pressure from party members, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced he was stepping aside to enable his deputy Mohamad Hasan to discharge the duties of the president.

Mohamad has since declared that Umno elected representatives were comfortable with the current leadership and that there would be no more defections.

He said Zahid was taking leave from his duties to stop further departures of members of parliament and assemblymen.

“I will be meeting with all the MPs. They (Umno members) are satisfied with the situation now.

“We must ensure the bleeding is stopped.”

Khaled called the party members who abandoned ship a virus that had destroyed Umno and was now set to do the same to Bersatu.

“I am confident they will soon turn Bersatu into Umno, You can call it Bersatu, but the reality is that it is actually Umno 2.0 or 3.0. The name is not important.”

He said it was reasonable to expect that the Umno leaders who joined Bersatu would bring along their culture of patronage and money politics.

“Slowly they will take control of Bersatu. They will create new camps. (They will be separated into )those who started the party driven by ideals and the Umno immigrants who will band together as alumni.”

Since the May general election, Bersatu has admitted Jeli MP Mustapa Mohamad, Bagan Serai MP Noor Azmi Ghazali and Masjid Tanah MP Mas Ermieyati Samsudin into its fold. – December 23, 2018.