UMNO Youth found the party president’s rationale as to why he should not go on leave while he stands accused of several crimes unacceptable, said sources from the wing.

Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s attempts to clear his name at a Umno Youth retreat last weekend were unconvincing and his explanations unsatisfactory, they said.

During the retreat in Janda Baik, Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki clarified to grassroots members the reason for his proposal for the party’s No. 1 to take a break, said a source.

“Asyraf’s explanations were clear,” the source told The Malaysian Insight.

In contrast, the source said: “the president’s explanations were dishonest”.

“How can we defend our president when Umno Youth itself is not clear on the case?”

The source said Asyraf informed members that he met with Zahid prior to his court appearance on October 19, when the former home minister had sought to clear up allegations of misconduct surrounding a charity foundation run by his family.

Asyraf was allegedly shocked to find that the charges levelled against Zahid were not consistent with the president’s earlier explanations.

The Youth chief next met with lawyers as well as the Youth heads in various states to discuss the case and to obtain their views before bringing forth the suggestion for Zahid to step aside from party matters.

“Zahid keeps repeating that the foundation funded religious schools, surau, mosques, the printing of Quran, but he never explained the source of the funds and how they were used and how he ended up being charged with criminal breach of trust,” said another source at the retreat.

“We cannot repeat our past mistake of defending a president without knowing what really happened.”

Zahid’s position as party president is under the spotlight after he was charged with 10 counts of criminal breach of trust, eight counts of receiving bribes amounting to more than RM42 million, and 27 charges of money laundering.

The charges are related to more than RM114 million linked to the Akalbudi Foundation or the decisions he made during his tenure as the home minister in the Barisan Nasional administration.

According to the source, the retreat was attended by leaders and their deputies of 326 of the 380 Umno Youth branches.

The source said at the beginning, the mood at the retreat was tense, as several branch leaders did not agree with the proposal for their president to go on leave.

“But after Asyraf explained in detail the reasons for it, the majority of Youth leaders understood and supported his decision.” – October 30, 2018.