Zahid Explains Why Umno Chose Harapan Over Pn

---

 


Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today explained to the Umno general assembly why his party decided to team up with Pakatan Harapan, instead of Perikatan Nasional.
Its leadership chose to form a unity government with Harapan despite last year's resolution to never accept Anwar Ibrahim and DAP.
In his policy speech at the 2022 Umno general assembly, Zahid told delegates about Article 9.1 of the Umno party constitution which gives the party’s supreme council the power to govern the party under the authority of the Umno general assembly.
"When this decision was made (to work with Harapan), internal dissidents argued that we had decided 'No Anwar No DAP' in the previous general assembly.
"However, this same group that made the noise failed to mention that the previous assembly also made the 'no Bersatu' resolution. They claimed that we have gone against the assembly’s decision which resoundingly said 'no Anwar no DAP'.
"But as a party that is bound by its constitution, we made the decision according to the Umno constitution," he said.
Elaborating, Zahid told the delegates that Article 9.1 stated that the Umno supreme council has the power to make a decision on behalf of the general assembly when there was no assembly, but all such decisions must be notified to the general assembly.
In the 15th general election in November, BN only managed to secure 30 parliamentary seats, of which 26 were won by Umno.
Umno and BN then decided to form a unity government with Harapan, whose component parties include PKR, DAP and Amanah.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid HamidiThe extraordinary decision by Umno was met with resistance from a small number of party leaders, who could not accept the party working with Anwar Ibrahim and DAP which had been regarded as Umno's arch enemy.
Following the formation of the unity government with Harapan, Zahid was subsequently appointed as the deputy prime minister.
His Majesty’s decree
The Bagan Datuk MP further said Umno took the position to form a government with Harapan as per the wish of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
"Our decision was according to our agreement to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong; that we accepted His Majesty's decree for a unity government to be formed.
"At the same time, Harapan also agreed to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong's decree, while PN rejected the suggestion.
"Thus, in line with our party constitution and to uphold the decree of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the Umno Supreme Council in its meeting had made the decision after weighing all the risks to the party. We also deliberated on the issue based on principles of democracy," he added.
Zahid said they also chose to work with Harapan because the latter has a greater number of seats, which means Harapan holds a bigger mandate from the people.
"After deliberating on all these, the supreme council decided to go with Harapan to form a unity government," he said. - Mkini

---