UMNO Officially Withdraws Support For PM Muhyiddin With Immediate Effect
UMNO president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi urges Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to step down to make way for an interim Prime Minister to take on his role.
By Yap Wan Xiang — 08 Jul 2021, 10:53 AM
UMNO has withdrawn its support for Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin with immediate effect
The announcement was made by party president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi via a livestream at about 1am this morning, 8 July.
Zahid said the decision was made by the UMNO Supreme Council during a special meeting held online last night, 7 July, which lasted for four hours, reported New Straits Times.
In a statement, he stated seven areas that Muhyiddin has failed as the country's Prime Minister, including failure to manage the COVID-19 pandemic, abusing the Emergency, failure to uphold parliamentary democracy, and failure to effectively provide aid to the rakyat of different income classes, among others.
Zahid also highlighted that Muhyiddin has failed to gain the public's trust and confidence, which led to a high number of reported suicide cases during the period.
He noted that there were 1,099 suicide cases between March 2020 and May 2021.
Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi speaking during the livestream at about 1am today, 8 July.
Image via UMNO Online (Facebook)With the withdrawal of support, he urges Muhyiddin to step down to allow someone to take on the country's top post temporarily
"Therefore, UMNO is urging Muhyiddin to step down respectfully so that a new prime minister can be appointed for a limited period," he continued in the statement.
"The new Prime Minister will only focus on efforts to help the people during the pandemic, addressing the COVID-19 virus through an inclusive approach and ensuring that the vaccination process can be expedited."
"After herd immunity is achieved, the new Prime Minister must advise the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to return the mandate to the people so that the 15th General Election (GE15) can be held."
The UMNO president said the appointment of an interim Prime Minister is crucial as the country and the people need a stable and functioning government
With that said, Zahid assured that his party will not cooperate with PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
"The Supreme Council meeting tonight also reaffirmed its stance as decided in the 2020 General Assembly which is to not provide any support in nominating Anwar to be the Prime Minister or a government that is led by DAP and Pakatan Harapan (PH)," he added.
Zahid's midnight announcement came less than 12 hours after Muhyiddin appointed Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob as the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM).
In a statement at about 5pm yesterday, the premier said he also promoted Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein to Senior Minister.
