There were no fireworks in Umno president Najib Abdul Razak’s closed door meeting with the party’s 160 division chiefs at the Putra World Trade Centre today, with all division chiefs reporting that they were “satisfied” and “happy” with Najib’s address to the delegates.

 

None of the division chiefs stood up to question Najib, and instead all “accepted” the explanations he had given over almost 90 minutes, giving him their full backing despite increasing pressure on the Najib administration recently, with former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad being one of his chief critics.

 

“Everyone was happy. It was a closed door meeting, so I can’t elaborate further,” said Ismail Sabri Yaakob, one of the organisers for the meet.

 

The meet is also not out of the ordinary, Ismail Sabri said, claiming that Umno division chiefs had agreed to meet Najib at least twice a year and this was an effort in that direction.

This is the first meeting for the 2015 calendar year, and another is expected in the second half of the year.

Muhyiddin, Mukhriz absent

Notable absentees at the meeting were Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Kedah Menteri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir who are both division chiefs.

However, Ismail Sabri downplayed this, saying that they had "prior commitments."

"The DPM wanted to attend but he could not make it due to other commitments," he said.

Malacca Chief Minister Idris Haron said that there were no grouses expressed by any of the division chiefs who attended the meeting.

"No, no, absolutely not," he said when asked if there were any calls for Najib to step down.

"We have been through a lot worse than this - we have been deregistered before and yet we have remained the rakyat's choice," he said.