'Pakatan Nasional' issue not discussed at Umno meeting: Bung

Umno did not discuss any possible cooperation with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad nor the formation of a "Pakatan Nasional" coalition to take over Putrajaya.

This according to Umno leader Bung Moktar Radin who spoke to the media after attending a four-hour Umno supreme council meeting at Menara Dato Onn in the capital today.

Bung said the two issues did not arise during the meeting.

"No cooperation (with Mahathir at all). No discussion," said Bung, who is a supreme council member as well as the Kinabatangan MP.

"We merely discussed on how to strengthen Muafakat Nasional to face the 15th general election," he said.

Bung was asked about if Umno had discussed the formation of "Pakatan Nasional" with PAS joining the coalition.

Speculation began on Monday when Bung's colleague, Lokman Adam released an audio recording claiming that Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi during a Muafakat Nasional meeting had tried to convince party leaders on the need to work together with Mahathir 

Umno information chief Shamsul Anuar Nasarah, however, later said Zahid merely proposed the idea for further discussion.

A source had told Malaysiakini that Zahid also indicated to party leaders recently that the cooperation would be “implicit and not in the open.”

The source further claimed that a senior confidante of Mahathir was acting as the middle person to broker this arrangement.

Mahathir said he would be delighted if PAS and Umno supported him adding that he anticipated both opposition parties to support Pakatan Harapan in Parliament. 

Bung today said the meeting had discussed about Lokman who leaked the audio recording involving the party president.

"We have discussed and we will let (the disciplinary board) to decide," he said.

He added the meeting took up to four hours as many leaders spoke up on other issues.

Meanwhile, Umno vice-president Tajuddin Abdul Rahman, who was said to have chaired the Muafakat Nasional meeting from which the audio clip was leaked by Lokman originated, declined to revisit the incident.

He said the issue had already become a history.

"No comment at all," he said. 

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