PETALING JAYA: Almost confirming that he has been dropped from the list of Umno candidates, incumbent Ketereh MP Tan Sri Annuar Musa confirmed he has yet to receive an invitation for the event to announce Barisan Nasional candidates in the 15th General Election (GE15) on Tuesday (Nov 1) night.
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In a surprise press conference in Kota Baru Tuesday morning, the caretaker Communications and Multimedia Minister accepted that he was most likely to be axed for having spoken out against the topmost Umno leadership but he will “not stay quiet forever”.
Annuar also was coy on the possibility of him standing on a PAS ticket as he said that “one should not talk of marrying another when one is still someone else’s wife”, implying he is still with Umno for now.
“My deputy division head Datuk Seri Md Alwi (Che Ahmad) has informed me that he had received an invitation for him to attend the event but I have not received any. I am in Kelantan anyway.
“I do not want to panic as if being a candidate is everything in this life. This is about servicing the people… what is important is we are honest and do our work when we are elected. If not, our minds will be sick when we do not get what we want.
“Politics is the art of a thousand and one possibilities, what is important is that our conscience is clear. I have enslaved myself to the party. If the party or president decides not to, we cannot be an MP forever.
“But, in our struggle, we have options,” said Annuar, sidelining the question of whether he would join any other parties.
Annuar was among those listed as one of the four Umno ministers who will most likely be dropped in GE15.
He also took a dig at Ahmad Zahid by saying that they had differences of opinions as the latter had gone against the official decisions of the party.
“I spoke up when I found out the topmost party leadership had signed a letter agreeing to Opposition Pakatan Harapan and PKR chief Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the next prime minister after bringing down then prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
“The ones who told the truth are the ones dropped, the ones who didn’t get away. I did not support Anwar as the PM not because I had personal enmity but because it was decided by the party – ‘No Anwar, No DAP’,” said Annuar.
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Stressing that it was not his style to beg for a seat from Umno, Annuar said he had “enslaved” himself to Umno and Barisan since his youth.
“If we contest to win and spend millions, we are only being idolised for the 14-day campaign period. We have to have principles and dignity in politics as this is not business.
“I am honest but if there is a decision by the party, I will adhere to it. However, I will give my own opinion before the decision is made.
“Since Umno fell in GE14, it has to reunite the Malays and Malay parties. If it does not do so, it will not be strong.
“It would then be possible that Umno would have to seek help and beg others to support it as the government.
“I was very pro-Muafakat Nasional and I know lots of stories. I am keeping quiet as I do not want to create fights.
“We would not have been the government if not for PAS and Bersatu. We even won the Melaka and Johor state elections. We won all that but we forget we only had a small share of MP seats.
“I have kept quiet all this while but it does not mean I will remain quiet forever,” said Annuar.
As to his next course of action, he said that he will be guided by the grassroots.
He said that as Ketereh Umno has more than 4,000 members, he would have to ask them first before he decides to shut down his operations rooms as his fellow minister Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim did on Monday (Oct 31) night.-The Star