UMNO Supreme Council today called for a national reconciliation agenda comprising all political parties, including the opposition under Perikatan Nasional.

In a statement released at midnight, party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi also reaffirmed it will reject any cooperation with PKR and DAP.

“We call for a national peaceful agenda to be formed immediately, consisting of all political parties under PN.

“We are reaffirming our earlier stance that we will not have any relationship with PKR or DAP and all of our MPs will stand and support PN,” he said.

Zahid also demanded better cooperation based on “respect” and “political consensus” from PN.

This was one of the conditions set by the decision-making body, after all Umno MPs agreed to support and back the PN government.

“As we have agreed to support PN, we urge better cooperation based on respect and political consensus,” Zahid said.

“The council also wants to suggest the government take an inclusive approach beyond political ideology to fight the Covid-19 pandemic and its negative economic impact on the people.”

The Supreme Council meeting began at 9.30pm, and ended after midnight.

This marked the third meeting for the day after the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah on Sunday rejected a bid by the cabinet to impose emergency rule in the country to fight the pandemic.  

In the morning, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin met political party leaders in his office before holding a cabinet meeting. Zahid was missing from the earlier meeting.

Later in the afternoon Barisan Nasional parliamentarians held a meeting at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur.

Muhyiddin’s special cabinet meeting was to discuss the king’s decree that there was no need for emergency anywhere in the country in the fight against the pandemic.

The Agong had said the government is doing a good job in handling the health crisis and urged politicians to immediately stop any form of politicking, which will disrupt the stability of the ruling government.

Prior to tonight’s meeting, Zahid had said several Umno MPs were ready to support PKR president Anwar Ibrahim to replace Muhyiddin as prime minister.

This came after the opposition leader held a press conference on September 23 to announce he had majority support to form the next government, a claim which he also took to Sultan Abdullah.

A letter purportedly signed by Zahid claiming Umno’s support for Anwar was also leaked to the media. That was later said to be fake.

Former prime minister Najib Razak today also suggested that Umno consider working with Anwar, or other parties if the general election is not called once the Covid-19 pandemic abates.

He, however, said there will be no room for DAP if an alliance is formed with Anwar. – October 26, 2020.