PERIKATAN Nasional (PN) carried out a political assassination campaign against UMNO president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, destroying his image in the process for their political gains that made him the “centre of gravity” of the opposition’s strategy, said Zahid.
On top of that, he added that they used the 3R (religion, royalty and race) issues to their advantage.
“Clearly from the last few by-elections, we managed to succeed even though in the state elections we did not because our political opponents used the 3R (religion, royalty, race) issues.
“They purposely destroyed my image because the method of destroying the organisation—smearing and slandering the top leaders—is their strategy.
“They do it to the ‘centre of gravity’. During former premier Tun Abdullah Badawi, they used the ‘fourth-floor boys’ as the target, and then the centre of gravity shifted to Najib and he was smeared with the 1MDB case and other things.
“Now that I have taken over the leadership of Umno amid troubled times, of course, the ‘centre of gravity’ has shifted to me,” Berita Harian quoted Zahid as saying.
He also pointed out that PN’s strategy was reminiscent of UMNO’s opponents in the past – which include the Pakatan Harapan (PH) surely, who used the “fourth-floor boys” during Abdullah’s time as prime minister and later, 1MDB during former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s administration as their targets.
“UMNO’s opponents are using the religion and Malay people against us because they want to take over the party’s role and leaders who got kicked out formed other parties because they want to destroy UMNO,” he further added.
However, he also recognised that UMNO has had too many betrayals in the recent past, adding that now there are still many who are angry with the party’s leadership. – Oct 8, 2023
Main photo credit: The Star
