Umno supreme council members said their meeting today went smoothly in the "spirit of solidarity of a big family".

Abdul Rahman Dahlan, who is also Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister and BN’s director of strategic communications said the meeting was held in a positive atmosphere with the overarching agendas being unity and moving forward.

"The president (Najib Abdul Razak) spoke for about 20 minutes and his speech was well-received.

"In the end, in the spirit of Umno as one big family, we settled problems in that spirit (family spirit)," he said when approached by reporters after the meeting at Menara Dato Onn at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur.

Fireworks had been expected as there had been much speculation that Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin and vice-president Mohd Shafie Apdal, along with leaders like Kedah Menteri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir and former Terengganu MB Ahmad Said would be sacked at today's MT meeting but this did not happen.

Muhyiddin and Shafie were dropped from the cabinet in the July 28 reshuffle.

Tajuddin Abdul Rahman, who is also Agriculture and Agro-based Industries deputy minister, said Najib in his speech asked the leadership to close ranks.

He said Muhyiddin had stated that he would continue to support the leadership and that the former deputy prime minister had given the assurance that he would not do anything that could jeopardise the party.

Kinabatangan MP Bung Moktar Radin said nothing extraordinary happened during the meeting despite Muhyiddin attending for the first time as deputy president and not deputy prime minister as well.

"We could sit together and discuss strategies for the next general election even though we may have had differences in opinions," he said, adding that Muhyiddin had stated that he would continue to assist the president in strengthening the party.

Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister and Kemaman MP Ahmad Shabery Cheek and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department and Arau MP Shahidan Kassim echoed the same views.

Malacca Chief Minister Idris Haron also described the meeting as orderly and that all the supreme council members shared the same view, that all must do their part to make the party stronger in future.

- Bernama