KNOWING that it is not easy to pin down Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, there is instead an on-going movement to boot out UMNO president Datuk Seri Zahid Ahmad Hamidi.
The group that is waging war against the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) has been identified by UMNO Supreme Council member Datuk Lokman Noor Adam as former Barisan Nasional (BN) secretary-general Tan Sri Annuar Musa and “his gang”.
“They are part of the group known as Gerakan Untuk Menumbangkan Presiden UMNO, a movement intended to force Zahid to resign,” Lokman shared on his latest live Facebook broadcast.
“They have started to sponsor certain groups to organise townhall sessions and rallies with the aim to topple the UMNO president.”
On a broader scale, the attack is part of a bigger group of people who are trying to destabilise the unity government under the Anwar leadership, according to Lokman.
“In order to safeguard themselves from becoming part of the court cluster and put behind bars in Sungai Buluh or Kajang prisons, they become too desperate to pin down the UMNO president down,” he asserted.
Despite the status quo of 3-3 in Saturday’s (Aug 12) six state polls, Lokman claimed that UMNO defectors are still trying to create the impression that the party is weak. With Zahid being eliminated, they hope to trigger the departure of UMNO from the unity government.
Rebuttal from Annuar Musa
Following his sacking by the UMNO supreme council on Dec 8 last year, Annuar who was the Ketereh UMNO division head has joined PAS in June this year after his pilgrimage in Mecca, citing that his decision was not influenced by either Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin or PAS president Tan Sri Hadi Awang.
In his response, Annuar described Lokman’s statement as been far-fetched. “He must be sick…,” the former UMNO warlord told FocusM.
“Am I that powerful to dictate UMNO Youth and fellow supreme council member Isham Jalil? I am not interested in Zahid. I won’t interfere in UMNO’s internal affairs. For me, the longer he stays the better.”
In defending UMNO, Lokman said the party’s dismal performance in the recent state polls s not due to its collaboration with the DAP.
“I do not deny that there may be a small group of Malays who may find it hard to shift their votes to DAP,” he said. “However, the number is small.”
Lokman revealed that in the past, it was former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s gang who after having failed to drag down the latter’s successor-turned-nemesis Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Pak Lah) resorted to attack the so-called fourth floor boys led by Pak Lah’s son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin.
“This resulted in BN losing six states – Kedah, Penang, Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan and Melaka – as well as the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur in 2008,” recalled the UMNO communications director.
In fact, during the backdoor government set up by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin after the Sheraton Move, the eighth premier had depended on UMNO to prop him.
“However, Muhyiddin’s mistake was not to appoint Zahid as DPM. Being a lot wiser, Anwar who learnt from the mistake of past leaders appointed Zahid as the DPM,” justified Lokman. – Aug 17, 2023
