UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said it was difficult for the party to reconcile with former members who ditched the party for personal interests after last year’s general election.

“It is unpardonable. Their action stabbs the party in the back and is a betrayal of their own race in the fight for its rights and religion,” Zahid said in his address to open the party’s Masjid Tanah delegate’s conference today.

The former deputy prime minister and Bagan Datok MP likened the 17 MPs who resigned to switch to the Pakatan Harapan coalition to the Malay proverb of a bent knife and its sheath.

He said the bent knives must be replaced with straight blades, so they could again fit into the sheath.

“People like these should not be given any opportunities (to return to the party).

“When they were in Umno, they benefitted from a lot of things. Now they are prepared to spit on their race to save themselves,” he said.

Zahid’s traitor jibe was aimed at Masjid Tanah MP Ermieyati Samsudin in particular, who left the party a day after its general assembly last year.

The former Umno Puteri chief, and deputy minister of tourism and culture resigned to be an independent politician.

She has since joined Bersatu.

The reason Ermieyati gave for quitting the party was that it had failed to change to meet the challenges of the new political landscape.

She said the majority of key positions in the party’s leadership were won by ageing veterans.

At the conference, Zahid said the party had hoped the Masjid Tanah division could be a role model when it won all six seats, including parliamentary, it contested in the area.

However, Zahid said that electoral performance had been tarnished by Ermieyati’s defection.

“They have gone against their race by betraying the trust of the people who had voted for them.

“Their names will forever etched in the dark history of the Malays.”

So far, 15 lawmakers have left Umno for Bersatu since the 14th general election last May. With the latest additions, Bersatu now has 26 MPs.

Most prominent of which included former domestic trade and consumer affairs minster Hamzah Zainuddin and former international trade minister Mustapa Mohamed (Jeli), who were among the first to leave the party.

Pakatan now has 129 MPs, 19 short of a two-thirds majority that would all but guarantee constitutional amendments. – June 23, 2019.