PARTI Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) should dissolve and its members should rejoin UMNO if it was sincere in cooperating with us, said the latter’s president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
“Perhaps, the UMNO supreme council would be magnanimous enough to receive you guys back into our fold,” he said in a Facebook post.
Despite being allies under the Perikatan Nasional coalition, UMNO and Bersatu had been clawing at each other since Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s premiership.
A few months back, several UMNO MPs withdrew support from Muhyiddin, which triggered the latter’s ouster and paved way for UMNO vice president Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to ascend the premiership.
Muhyiddin has been trying to mend ties with UMNO but the latter had dismissed working with the former in the next general election, prompting the ex-premier to announce that his party would not hesitate to take on UMNO.
Bersatu’s treachery
On that note, Zahid said that there were several reasons why his party would not cooperate with Bersatu in the next polls, claiming UMNO is the only party that can champion race, religion and country.
He added that UMNO does not belong to one particular individual and its 3.3 million strong members would never allow that principle to be ditched.
“Secondly, we still remember the lies Bersatu spread against us in the last general election and have learned our lesson. We will ensure UMNO dominates again in the next polls.
“Besides, Bersatu is just a splinter party of UMNO, which was formed in 2016. It was established by those who were sore that they couldn’t take over the party’s administration and they worked with Pakatan Harapan to topple us,” the former deputy prime minister stated.
Zahid added that Bersatu was also found wanting in their pact with UMNO, alleging the former was attempting to “buy over” the latter’s members since last year.
“So, I urge Bersatu leadership not to be hypocritical and play innocent as everyone knows what happened,” he retorted. – Oct 5, 2021.
