Umno vice president Shafie Apdal said he hoped party deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin will still be allowed to deliver his winding-up speech at the Umno general assembly, set to take place from Dec 8 to 12.

He said this in response to Umno president Najib Abdul Razak who raised eyebrows when he announced on Tuesday a break from tradition, where the deputy president will not be allowed to officiate the party's wings annual general assembly and deliver his opening speech.

"At the very least, shouldn't the deputy president along with the Umno vice-presidents be allowed to speak during the winding-up?

"I am confident that the Umno grassroots want to listen, observe, and evaluate everything said by the leadership, including wings' chief, vice-presidents, the deputy president, as well as the president.

"I believe that Umno members can differentiate (between) what is good for the strengthening and improvement of the party and otherwise," he said in a statement late last night.

Najib had said the surprise change was made on request of the respective chiefs, who will be opening their wings' annual general assembly themselves.

Shafie said the break from tradition was improper and sarcastically suggested that the wings' chiefs were wiser than their more experienced leaders.

"If that is the wish of the wings' chiefs who are wiser and understand better about Umno's struggle than their leaders who are more experienced, I respect the collective decision," he said.

The move to bar Muhyiddin from officiating the wings' opening is seen as an attempt to silence him.

Muhyiddin, together with Shafie, were dismissed from the government in July for their openly critical stance against Najib's handling of 1MDB.