Muhyiddin gradually stripped of party functions

Deputy president is seeing others taking over his party functions as Umno deputy president following his sacking in July as deputy prime minister.

PETALING JAYA: Although still officially the deputy president of Umno, sacked Deputy Prime Minister Muhyddin Yassin is seeing his party functions being gradually stripped away.

This observation was reinforced when a letter, issued yesterday by Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, informed party leaders of a “war room meeting” Sunday, that will be chaired by Umno Vice-President Ahmad Zahid Hamidi instead.

Traditionally, this meeting, by the party’s General Elections Coordination and Operations Centre (GCOC) is chaired by the Umno deputy president.

Malaysiakini, claims to have seen the letter and spoke to a party source, who upon registering his surprise, exclaimed, “How can Ahmad Zahid as (Umno) vice-president replace Muhyiddin who is still (Umno) deputy president?”

Other sources told Malaysiakini that Muhyiddin had also been removed from chairing the pre-Umno supreme council meeting discussions, another key function of an Umno deputy president.

The sources said that this meeting had now been replaced by a “special political bureau meeting” instead chaired by Prime Minister Najib Razak, in his capacity as Umno president.

Commenting on this turn of events, the source said it appeared that Najib no longer trusted Muhyiddin to carry out his party functions and was actively sidelining him despite the latter’s pledge to stay loyal to Umno.

Another source however saw no cause for concern as those party functions were not exclusively that of the deputy president. He explained, “Indeed Muhyiddin is still deputy president but he is seen refusing to listen to the president.

“At the same time, there are other leaders who are willing to listen to the president,”

Muhyiddin was dropped as deputy prime minister in July for his criticisms about Najib and his handling of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) financial scandal as well as the RM2.6 billion found in the PM’s personal bank accounts. He was replaced by Zahid as deputy prime minister.

Muhyiddin was however retained as Umno deputy president but is now having to endure seeing his party functions gradually being taken away.