KUALA LUMPUR, June 5 — Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof has issued an invitation for a press conference at his official residence this evening, as rumours emerged that two federal ministers might resign their positions today.
The minister in the Prime Minister’s Department had called for a press conference last month at the Bersatu headquarters, which coincided with disputed Bersatu chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s visit to the same location to challenge party officials to sack him in person.
The event fuelled speculation that Redzuan had been about to defect to Dr Mahathir’s faction of Bersatu, but this did not materialise.
While Redzuan’s aide issued a statement later that day to deny the press conference would take place, the minister later admitted to meeting Dr Mahathir at the Perdana Leadership Foundation despite being under a mandatory medical quarantine due to being a Covid-19 close contact.
Redzuan’s invitation today did not specify the purpose of the press conference.
Yesterday, Datuk Shahruddin Md Salleh resigned as the deputy works minister ostensibly to support Dr Mahathir.
Dr Mahathir’s faction is warring with Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s group for control of Bersatu, but the former’s position has been severely hobbled by the resignation he submitted as the party’s chairman on February 23.
While the Bersatu supreme council rejected the resignation when it was tendered, it still stripped Dr Mahathir of any authority until he was officially reinstated during internal elections.
Bersatu has since revoked the memberships of Dr Mahathir and four other lawmakers in his faction, and upheld this decision during yesterday’s supreme council meeting.
Speculation is intensifying over a possible change in government that will be fuelled by defections.
This morning, Sinar Harian published a speculative piece quoting an anonymous source as claiming that two ministers were about to resign.
