PETALING JAYA: Umno today reiterated it had no intention of working with DAP, saying that if it had wanted to join forces with the opposition party, it would have done so during the recent Perak political crisis.
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“If Umno wanted to collaborate with DAP, it had the best opportunity to do so during the replacement of the Perak menteri besar,” said the party’s information chief, Shahril Hamdan, referring to Ahmad Faizal Azumu’s ouster from the post.
Faizal lost the confidence of the Perak state assembly last month, which led to Umno’s Saarani Mohamad being named as the new menteri besar.
“But that did not happen,” Shahril said in a statement.
He said neither Umno’s political bureau nor its Supreme Council had ever once decided on negotiating with PKR or DAP.
Shahril said Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had repeatedly stated at meetings he would never collaborate with DAP.
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Until today, he said, the party was keeping to a decision made at the Umno general assembly in 2019 to never join forces with PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and DAP, and barring any change in policy, the party leadership would stick to this decision.
Of claims that Umno was out to topple the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government, Shahril said they were untrue, pointing out that Umno MPs had supported the recent national budget at every level.
This, he said, was despite the fact that Umno was unhappy with several issues, be it policy or its ties with PPBM.
“This clearly shows that Umno is backing the PN government for the sake of the people and country during the Covid-19 pandemic.”
He also dismissed the notion that the Umno leadership had flip-flopped when it came to Muafakat Nasional, the pact it forged with PAS.
Umno, he said, had always been consistent in wanting to strengthen its ties with the Islamist party without being a component of PN.- FMT