UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s announcement late last night for the party to withdraw support for the Perikatan Nasional government was not a decision made in the Supreme Council meeting, said Annuar Musa.

The former party secretary-general said in a Facebook posting that the Umno president’s statement, which he had read out at his press conference, was prepared beforehand.

Annuar said he was informed of this by some Supreme Council members who had attended the four-hour meeting and alleged the president’s announcement differed from the discussion at the meeting.

Annuar, who is the Federal Territories Minister, is not a member of the Supreme Council. He supports continuing ties with PN and Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

“Why is such a thing happening again and again? What is announced is different from what was discussed.

“Twenty-five supreme council members spoke in the meeting. The situation was tense and they gave their honest opinion. There were different views.

“However, there was no clear consensus, and no votes were taken, In fact, the discussion did not even touch on Umno getting out of the PN government as was speculated earlier,” he said.

He added that Zahid was duty bound to explain the real situation in order to avoid further confusion among party members and leaders.

Zahid, in a very late press conference early this morning, said Umno had decided to pull out of the PN government with immediate effect.

He said the decision was made because the PN government led by Muhyiddin had failed.

Umno has 38 seats in the Dewan Rakyat, while four seats are held by its other Barisan Nasional component parties; MCA has two seats, while MIC and PBRS have one seat each.

Under Muhyiddin’s administration, Umno lawmakers hold nine ministerial and eight deputy ministerial posts.

Zahid’s decision to withdraw its support came just hours after the Prime Minister’s Office announced the appointment of Umno vice-president and Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob as the deputy prime minister, while Foreign Affairs Minister Hishammuddin Hussein was promoted to senior minister (security cluster), left vacant by Ismail Sabri.

Zahid also said a new prime minister should be appointed until the country tackles the Covid-19 pandemic and achieves herd immunity through vaccination. – July 8, 2021.