THE time has come for Umno to stop supporting the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government, which continues to keep making mistake after mistake, said Shahrir Abdul Samad.

The former Johor Baru MP said this ahead of the Umno Supreme Council meeting today, which is taking place amid a conflict between the government and the Yang di-Pertuan Agong over the repeal of the emergency ordinances.

“The PN government has gone from one mistake to another. Enough for Umno to be with the PN (government),” he said in a Facebook post today.

The former seven-term MP said he was shocked by police action to block the entrance to the Parliament building yesterday, when the Agong had told Parliament to convene and play its role in accordance with the federal constitution.

Shahrir said the PN government can’t seem to stop damaging itself.

“Just get out (of PN),” he said.

Yesterday, several opposition MPs were stopped from entering Parliament, and were threatened with arrests by police personnel manning the roadblocks nearby.

Police started blocking several of them from going to the Parliament building on the road in front of the Bank Rakyat building.

The MPs then gathered at Dataran Merdeka and, after some two hours of speeches, the large gathering of lawmakers was dispersed by the FRU and prevented from marching to Parliament House.

The lawmakers ended their protest after opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim declared that the “107 MPs” present “have made their point”.

Monday was to be the last day of a five-day special sitting that the PN government agreed to hold despite the emergency, which ended on Sunday.

The opposition MPs want the government to explain the revocation of emergency ordinances announced last week that the Agong said did not have his assent, which caused an uproar in the Dewan Rakyat on Thursday.

Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the Supreme Council meeting this afternoon would refine the party’s stance and actions to face the current political situation.

“Umno is very concerned with the current issues, especially the crisis between the palace and the government, the violation of the sovereignty of the institution of the king.

“The supremacy of the constitution and the sterilisation of the practice of parliamentary democracy,” he said in a statement yesterday.

In its last meeting on July 7, the Supreme Council decided to withdraw support for Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister and urged him to resign with honour.

Zahid reasoned that Muhyiddin’s government failed based on the conditions set by Umno when supporting the formation of a new government to replace Pakatan Harapan’s in March 2020.

At the same time, Umno had also given its MPs the flexibility to determine their own support following the party’s decision, in the event of a vote in the Dewan Rakyat. – August 3, 2021.