Puad warns that Umno and PAS risk being used in PM game by smaller Bersatu
Umno Supreme Council member Mohd Puad Zarkashi has warned his party against being made into a pawnshop by those who jumped into Bersatu in pursuit of top posts.
"That's why it's so strange that (Pas president) Abdul Hadi Awang and Umno's Anuar Musa have suggested that Muhyiddin Yassin be the coalition's Prime Minister candidate for the 15th General Election.
Puad said that big victory in the Chini by-election is a "signal" from the people that Malays and Umno-PAS members are behind the new alliance.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to better the translation of the original statement.
Umno Supreme Council member Mohd Puad Zarkashi has warned his party against being made into a pawnshop by those who jumped into Bersatu in pursuit of top posts.
"That's why it's so strange that (Pas president) Abdul Hadi Awang and Umno's Anuar Musa have suggested that Muhyiddin Yassin be the coalition's Prime Minister candidate for the 15th General Election.
Puad said that big victory in the Chini by-election is a "signal" from the people that Malays and Umno-PAS members are behind the new alliance.
He highlighted that Umno and PAS party membership was nearly 5 million while the Bersatu party membership is less than 100,000.
He cited PKR and DAP, who are both Pakatan Harapan allies with large numbers of seats in Parliament, who supported a Bersatu leader as the PM candidate.
"Look at the big parties like PKR and DAP which pawned the premier post to Bersatu. They became pawned themselves at the end," Puad said on Facebook today.
"Don't let what happen to Harapan be repeated in Muafakat Nasional. Moreover, the people are asking if Muhyiddin and his predecessor Dr Mahathir Mohamad were friends or foes," he said.
Puad was referring to how Harapan and its allies could not arrive at a PM candidate despite previously agreeing to support PKR president Anwar Ibrahim as the eighth prime minister candidate in 2018.
In Perikatan Nasional (PN), all eyes are on how the three Malay-based parties, Umno, PAS, and Bersatu, which traditionally contest in the same Malay heartland, would arrive at a consensus on seat allocations for the next poll.
Speculation had been rife that Muhyiddin might call for a snap poll by this year.
On July 2, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang and Muafakat Nasional co-secretary-general Annuar Musa reportedly declared their support for Muhyiddin as the PM candidate in the next poll.
Puad then urged Umno to seek approval from the grassroots before naming Muhyiddin as the PM.
"A huge decision such as pawning the premiership post to Bersatu must get the approval of the grassroots members.
In their fight to board the gravy train they have forgotten the people.
Eventually reality will set in. Now UMNO are supporting Muhyiddin because they wanted to topple Harapan. But in a new general election it will be a new ball game altogether. They do not need Muhyiddin or Bersatu. In fact to the contrary, Bersatu will only eat into UMNO sphere of influence and UMNO only too well can see that as espoused by their junior officials. UMNO President and top officials still have to toe the PN line publicly but eventually they will say that the people want the PM to come from UMNO. And that will be when they cease their support for Muhyiddin as PM. Muhyiddin will look up at the ceiling contemplating at how the joke is on him then. As he had betrayed his boss in Harapan, so will he get betrayed.
Bersatu - a small party with inflated ego (at least 5X), thanks to DR M.
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