Bersatu leader asks if Umno man expects Muhyiddin to interfere in Najib's case
Bersatu supreme council member Muhammad Faiz Na'aman today questioned if his Umno counterpart Mohd Puad Zarkashi expected Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to interfere in the SRC International graft trial.
This is after Puad complained that Najib was convicted despite supporting Muhyiddin as the prime minister...
Bersatu supreme council member Muhammad Faiz Na'aman today questioned if his Umno counterpart Mohd Puad Zarkashi expected Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to interfere in the SRC International graft trial.
This is after Puad complained that Najib was convicted despite supporting Muhyiddin as the prime minister.
Faiz pointed out that Najib's SRC trial was initiated during the time of Muhyiddin's predecessor Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
"Does Puad want Muhyiddin to interfere in the court case simply because the Pekan MP supports the prime minister?
"We should learn from history and understand that the country's governance separates the courts from politics and accept the court's independence in making a decision," Faiz said in a press statement.
Faiz also questioned Puad's repeated statements that undermine the Perikatan Nasional government led by Muhyiddin.
Muhyiddin has a fragile majority in the Dewan Rakyat, commanding the support of 113 MPs to the opposition's 109 MPs.
Faiz said Puad's statements threatened unity in PN, a coalition of coalitions and diverse parties.
"It appears Puad is very uncomfortable with the PN government which was formed after the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong appointed Muhyiddin as the eighth prime minister.
"The statements coming out from him have been ‘friendly-fire’ in nature rather than trying to strengthen the consensus that the majority of Malaysians, particularly the bumiputera community, wants.
"Is Puad (below) being disrespectful of the position and decision of his own party president who has agreed to the formation of the new government?" he said.
The PN ruling coalition comprises Bersatu, PKR defectors, BN, PAS, GPS, PBS and STAR.
Puad is part of a faction within Umno that is unhappy having to play second fiddle to Bersatu in the coalition.
They believe Umno, which has more seats in the Dewan Rakyat, should be the dominant force and believe that Umno can comfortably take on Bersatu in the next general election instead of having to make concessions.
Najib was yesterday sentenced to 12 years in prison and RM210 million fine on seven charges of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering involving RM42 million in funds belonging to state-owned SRC International Sdn Bhd.
Following the decision, Puad insinuated that this was a vengeance by Muhyiddin, who was in 2016 sacked as deputy prime minister and Umno deputy president by Najib.
Muhyiddin went on to form the splinter party Bersatu with Mahathir and several other Umno rebels.
Together with their Pakatan Harapan allies, they ended BN's 61 years in power in the 2018 general election.
The Harapan government led by Mahathir collapsed in late February after Muhyiddin pulled Bersatu out and formed the new coalition.
Muhyiddin was sworn in as the new prime minister after his mentor-turned-rival Mahathir refused to lead the new PN coalition as he adamantly refused to work with Umno.
Muhyiddin had been working to formalise PN so that component parties can contest under a common platform in the next general election.
Umno, Bersatu and PAS rely on a Malay base and have extensive overlapping claims over electoral constituencies that they want to contest in the general election, making negotiations difficult for the new coalition.
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