KUALA LUMPUR – Barisan Nasional is organising a special meeting today to allow its MPs and leaders to clear the air over matters arising from Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s failed bid to call for an emergency, said a spokesman from Umno, the coalition’s lynchpin.
The meeting at the Putra World Trade Centre will “cover everything”, Umno supreme council member and deputy minister Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin told The Vibes.
“If any of us have any doubts, we can ask. It is also related (to the decision not to declare emergency), and a lot of other things.”
On Umno’s support for Muhyiddin, Zahidi said the party is behind the prime minister.
“We heard what the King said yesterday, no politicking. So we must continue helping the people.”
The meeting, which began at 12.30pm, will first see BN backbenchers take the floor, followed by ministers who will arrive later after attending a special cabinet meeting with Muhyiddin in Putrajaya.
Several leaders were spotted outside the meeting room, including former prime minister and Pekan MP Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.
Meanwhile, sources told The Vibes that Umno supreme council member Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim mooted the special meeting with BN chief Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi chairing the session.
Zahid was the sole absentee today at Muhyiddin’s meeting with party leaders aligned to him.
Muhyiddin had been pushing for emergency orders since Friday after meeting the Agong to discuss putting the country under draconian rule.
The move immediately garnered pushback from politicians, activists and Malaysians at large with many signing an online petition in protest of emergency orders.
But, in a dramatic turn of events yesterday, the Agong rejected Muhyiddin’s ambition, and instead, told the country’s politicians to stop politicking and focus on combating Covid-19 and reviving the economy.
Muhyiddin, in a statement after, said he respected the Agong’s decision and that his cabinet would “discuss His Majesty’s decree further”. – The Vibes, October 26, 2020
