KUALA LUMPUR, July 8 – The government’s failure to fulfill the aspirations of the people has prompted Umno to end its support immediately for Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yasin, urging for his resignation to enable a successor appointed for a limited period.
Party president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced this in a virtual press conference after chairing Umno Supreme Council (MKT) meeting, last night, which also reiterated the prerequisites set to support Muhyiddin as the premier on March 11, 2020.
The decision last night was met after Umno weighed seven main failures of the Perikatan Nasional Cabinet, namely:
I. Failure in addressing the Covid-19 pandemic effectively has caused serious anxiety and depression among the people. These include inconsistent policies, the implementation of the MCO which has locked up the people for almost 6 months in hardship and the half-baked ‘Total Lockdown’ which only saw the number of deaths risen from 2,800 to over 5,768 in just 38 days.
II. Failure in the Emergency Ordinance which is only used for political reason to the detriment the people and the country. Similarly denying Umno’s opposition towards proclamation. Worse is when the Emergency Ordinance which supposedly can be used to help the people turned out to be more burdensome with various ‘double-standard’ and extreme compounds imposed when they are already burdened with survival issues.
III. Failure to defend the Parliamentary Democracy system which upholds check and balance practices in the administration, especially in monitoring all government initiatives in dealing with pandemics such as its expenditure, procurement and all vaccination efforts.
IV. Failure to effectively manage the assistance and demands of the people at all levels. These include Moratorium 2.0 claims without accrued charges/interest, moratorium policies that are not extended to other government agencies such as LPPSA (Public Sector Housing Financing Authority), i-Citra schemes that are not friendly, and cash assistance such as ACA, BPN and BKC which are ineffective to get rid of the burdensome bureucratic measures.
V. Failure to inject confidence to the people in managing their welfare until there is a serious increase in social problems such as suicide cases (Note: The number of suicide cases from March 2020 to May 2021 was 1,099 cases). The #BenderaPutih movement is an example of the people’s manifestation of their frustration and protest against the Government.
VI. Failure to manage political and economic stability has created investors’ distrust of the country’s ability. The Covid Operating Index released by Bloomberg places the country in the 3rd lowest place among the 53 major economies.
VII. Failure to heed The King and Malay Rulers’ decree that the Parliament should reconvene immediately and allowed to debate the Emergency Ordinances and the National Recovery Plan.
Zahid, who is also Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman and Bagan Datuk Member of Parliament said the new Prime Minister’s term will only focus on helping the people’s welfare during the pandemic, addressing Covid-19 with an inclusive approach and ensuring the vaccination and immunization process can be expedited.
“Having succeeded in achieving the level of group immunization, the new Prime Minister must immediately advise the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to return the mandate to the people in the 15th General Election. This is important to enable a Government that is truly stable and obtains the majority mandate of the people.”
Earlier, he informed that the MKT meeting took note of the party’s Political Bureau decision requesting the government to call for the Parliament sitting in 14 days. The government finally agreed to advise Yang di-Pertuan Agong for the sitting resume on July 26.
Last night meeting also ratified the decision to postpone party elections for 18 months in accordance with Clause 10.16 of the Umno Constitution.
