A SIGNIFICANT portion of UMNO members is opposed to the party’s decision of teaming up with DAP in government but have no choice but to play along with party president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s accord.
This is according to Arau MP Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim, who is currently aligned with the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition after being dropped by UMNO.
“If you conduct a survey, a majority of UMNO members don’t want to work with DAP. UMNO has lost the honour it had as its original principle was ‘No DAP’,” the former Federal Territories minister told Utusan Malaysia in an interview.
“You have to understand that DAP upholds in the ‘Malaysian Malaysia’ concept, but UMNO fights for the Malay-Muslim cause. That’s why when I joined PN, we had an extraordinary win,” he added.
The Arau MP went on to boast about his 23,000-plus majority win margin in the constituency in the 15th General Election (GE15) as compared to Zahid scraping through with a mere 300-plus majority in the Bagan Datuk parliamentary seat, noting that UMNO has lost its appeal among voters.
When quizzed about his relationship with the embattled UMNO president, Shahidan stressed that the latter was still a “good friend” of his.
“We even hugged each other when we met recently, he’s a good friend. Only our principles differ. The situation may have been different if I was still with UMNO,” he was reported as saying.
Asked if he still has lost love for UMNO, Shahidan said he only loved PAS and PN now, because UMNO was “no longer what it used to be”.
After being dropped by Barisan Nasional in the days leading up to GE15, Shahidan contested the Arau parliamentary seat under a PN ticket and won. – March 7, 2023
Main pic credit: Harian Metro
