“You’re not Umno president”: Puad fires a salvo against colleague Ismail Sabri

“You’re not Umno president”: Puad fires a salvo against colleague Ismail Sabri



As the divide within Umno widens, one of its supreme council members opened fire on vice president Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob for allegedly sidelining the party president on decision making.

“In the party, Ismail Sabri is one of the vice presidents. Neither is he the president nor the deputy president. Having said that, he is not the Barisan Nasional (BN) chairperson too.

“Ismail Sabri is the Deputy Prime Minister but that doesn’t give him a free pass to bypass the Umno president and BN chairperson. He must get the latter’s consent before doing anything involving the party,” Datuk Puad Zarkashi said, in a Facebook post.

Puad said this after Ismail Sabri announced last week that he had chaired a meeting with 40MPs from the BN coalition, who were claimed to have unanimously voiced support for the embattled Prime Minister Tan Sri Mahiaddin Yassin.

Umno MP Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz confirmed the matter, alleging that even Mahiaddin’s critic, fellow Umno MP Datuk Ahmad Jazlan Yaakob is now backing the premier.

The duo said this despite Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi stating earlier that the party was withdrawing support from Mahiaddin weeks ago, upon endorsement from its supreme council.

The Bera MP’s statement was also disputed by BN executive secretary Mohamad Sahfri Ab Aziz, who stressed that only the BN chairperson or its secretary general was allowed to issue such statements, using official party channels.

Puad stressed that no party leader was allowed to conduct meetings with BN MPs, unless it was authorised by the coalition’s chairperson.

“We cannot allow such things to happen. A ship cannot be manned by two captains. It will be disastrous,” the former deputy minister stated. – Aug 2, 2021.