Nazri wants Muhyiddin to return and take over as Umno president but Bersatu Youth objects

Malaysiakini:

Nazri wants Muhyiddin to return and take over as Umno president

Umno's Padang Rengas MP Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz has proposed for Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin return to Umno and take over from Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as party president.

Nazri argued this would resolve the bulk of the problems with seat allocation within Perikatan Nasional for the 15th general election.

"Muhyiddin did not leave us (Umno) but he was sacked. If he returns to us, he would be making a big contribution as he would bring the position of prime minister to Umno.

"The issue of what will happen to the (current) Umno president does not arise because the priority is the party. We should accept (Muhyiddin) with open arms," said Nazri as quoted by Astro Awani.

Muhyiddin was sacked from Umno in 2016 after he questioned then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak over the 1MDB scandal.

Muhyiddin, together with former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and other Umno rebels, later formed the Umno splinter party Bersatu.

Bersatu, together with its Pakatan Harapan coalition allies and Warisan, defeated Umno and BN in the 2018 general election. The incumbent government had been in power since 1957.

However, the Harapan government collapsed in late February after Muhyiddin pulled Bersatu out to form a new coalition with PKR defectors, BN, PAS, GPS, PBS, and STAR.

Muhyiddin was sworn in (photo) as the new prime minister after Mahathir refused to lead the new coalition as the latter had adamantly refused to work with Umno, a party which he led for 22 years and later fought against when Najib was in power.

Nazri added that sacrifices should be made in the name of race and religion.

"As Malays, we should be forgiving in the name of religion, race, and country," he said.

He also said Muhyiddin could either rejoin Umno alone or bring other Bersatu MPs and Umno would still accept them.

This suggestion came amid grumblings within Umno at having to accommodate Bersatu.

Muhyiddin had been working to formalise PN so that its component parties could contest under a common platform in the next general election.

However, some within Umno believe that the Umno-PAS alliance is strong enough to win in the next general election without having to make concessions to Bersatu.

All three parties rely on a Malay voter base and have extensive overlapping claims over electoral constituencies that they want to contest in.



In a related development, Bersatu Youth exco member Muzzammil Ismail (photo) said Nazri's proposal was uncalled for and would only lead to unhealthy speculations.

"Bersatu and Umno's struggles are based on different ethos even though they have Malays and bumiputera as the core.

"There is no need to raise the issue of Bersatu rejoining Umno," he said in a statement.