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KUALA LUMPUR: Umno President Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has targeted Federal Territories Minister Annuar Musa, describing him as a plague and a traitor, and challenging him to resign from his post.
Zahid did not name Annuar. He simply spoke of “a minister who is not on stage but who stabbed Umno in the back” and challenged him to resign from the Cabinet.
“If he is a man, he should resign as minister,” Zahid said, drawing cheers and applause from the crowd. “This is a plague. If it weren’t for Umno, I wouldn’t be in that position. “
However, Zahid later said he was confident that Umno’s cabinet ministers would remain loyal to the party.
Although Annuar was not named, there was little doubt who Zahid was referring to. Annuar has been criticized by his party colleagues for being too friendly with the PPBM.
Umno Supreme Council member Mohd Puad Zarkashi has previously accused Annuar, who is a former Barisan Nasional secretary general, of being the weapon of PPBM within Umno.
Puad said that Annuar had been openly attacking Umno and Zahid to make the party appear divided and claimed that Annuar was executing “the enemy’s game plan.”
Zahid also reminded Wanita Umno’s Minister of Higher Education and Director Noraini Ahmad, who was also on stage, that just because she was a member of the party could she be appointed a minister.
Umno and his Barisan Nasional partners support the “supply and confidence movement” in the Dewan Rakyat for the Muhyiddin Yassin government, but is not a member of the Perikatan Nasional coalition led by Muhyiddin’s PPBM party.
Zahid has stated that Umno deputies would support the government only until Parliament is dissolved and general elections are called.
When asked at a press conference later why he had not fired the minister mentioned in his speech for “backstabbing” the party, Zahid said that this was not up to the president but to the Umno disciplinary board.
“The disciplinary board will study the matter and take it to the Supreme Council,” he said, adding that there was no motion for the minister to be removed from the party.
