AHMAD Zahid Hamidi’s status as Umno president is on the agenda at a Supreme Council meeting on Friday, including the Youth wing’s proposal that he go on leave until his criminal charges are settled.

Despite the criticism levelled against wing chief Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, a Supreme Council member who attended the Umno Youth retreat at Janda Baik last weekend said the Youth will raise its proposal at the meeting.

“People want to see the role that the Youth can play leading Umno. Whether the wing will be a ‘yes-man’ and whether it will speak up if our leaders make mistakes?

“If they remain ‘yes-men’, then Umno cannot recover,” said the member who did not want to be named.

Umno’s leadership is divided over the Youth wing’s proposal which Asyraf announced on October 25. He said it was not his decision alone and that the wing’s exco had supported it.

Some Youth branch and division chiefs have also tried to distance themselves from the exco’s call for Zahid to go on leave. 

The Umno president is facing 45 charges of criminal breach of trust, bribery and money-laundering involving a total of RM114 million. The funds are allegedly from a charity foundation, Yayasan Akalbudi, where he is a trustee, and over projects awarded while he was Barisan Nasional’s home minister.

Asyraf said Umno Youth’s proposal did not imply that Zahid was guilty but was made to protect the integrity of the president’s post. 

Others, however, have countered by applying the “innocent until proven guilty” argument and that Umno Youth should always be at the forefront defending its leaders. 

At the heart of the disagreement is a standard operating procedure (SOP) or guidelines Umno agreed to in 2009 requiring high-ranking leaders to go on leave when they faced criminal charges.

Deputy president Mohamad Hasan reminded the party of the SOP after Zahid was charged, as its rationale is to protect Umno from being associated with any potential wrongdoing.

The SOP, which came about after a Supreme Council leader was removed from his division chief post after being charged with making a false statement, allows a leader to resume the post if the court declares him innocent.

The Supreme Council member who spoke to The Malaysian Insight said some felt the SOP made sense when Umno was a ruling party.

“When we were in the government, if any Umno leader was charged in court, it was our government pressing the charges, so, therefore, the leader should step down.

“Now there are views that since we are an opposition party, this no longer applies. In fact, the former opposition member did not resign if he had court cases.” – November 4, 2018.