Umno leaders say conditional MCO fiasco shows weakness in leadership
Umno vice president Khaled Nordin and Umno supreme council member Abdul Rahman Dahlan claimed this was something “embarrassing” as it portrayed a weakness in leadership.
UPDATED 11.00PM | Umno leaders today ticked off senior minister Azmin Ali over his failure to discuss with states before deciding to restart the economy through the conditional movement control order (MCO).
Umno vice president Khaled Nordin and Umno supreme council member Abdul Rahman Dahlan claimed this was something “embarrassing” as it portrayed a weakness in leadership.
Several states had decided to pull the brakes despite the federal government giving the green light to reopen almost all economic sectors.
Khaled said an obvious problem is the failure of the senior minister in charge of the economic affairs to discuss, negotiate, and obtain consensus from all state governments before making a decision.
"It's crucial to have such an important decision to be brought to the discussion table to get the nod.
"The failure shows a clear weakness in the leadership, strategy and coordination in regard to healing the economy," Khaled (above) said in a statement.
He did not name the minister but it is believed he was referring to Azmin (photo).
Khaled said some states have instead taken the precaution by not allowing businesses and trading sectors to reoperate as there was "no soft landing exit strategy".
"What has happened is not a good beginning and affects the public's trust in Perikatan Nasional. The PN cabinet must learn the lesson from the incident," he said.
Azmin in a statement tonight, however, claimed that menteri besar and chief ministers had attended the April 28 National Security Council (NSC) meeting which agreed on reopening the country's economic sectors.
Meanwhile, Abdul Rahman said this had never happened before, describing it as “very embarrassing”.
"Something was not right in the communications. The matter was supposed to be discussed between the economic cluster minister (and the state) because this is under his purview," he said.
"To resolve a crisis like this one, he should have discussed the matter in a video conference with everyone," he told the media after attending Umno’s supreme council meeting at the party's headquarters earlier today.
"It is like a big slap to the economic cluster minister for being unable to coordinate the matter, (with the states)," he said.
"This is a signal to him and the government so they should not take things lightly," added the former Kota Belud MP.
Azmin had said that the government's decision came after careful, cautious and responsible deliberations based on the data and studies on the country's current health and economic situation.
In his announcement, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin explained the decision to ease the MCO was to revitalise the economy and prevent further losses, estimated to total RM98 billion for the entire duration of the MCO.
At least six states had decided to maintain strict MCO restrictions.
They are Sarawak, Sabah, Penang, Pahang, Kelantan, Kedah, and Penang.
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