KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 21 — Former Ketereh MP Tan Sri Annuar Musa today said that Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi does not have the power to fire Umno MPs who sign statutory declarations (SD) to support a Perikatan Nasional (PN) federal government.
In an interview with SuaraTV that was live-streamed on his Facebook page, Annuar insisted only the party Supreme Council has the power to do so and Ahmad Zahid’s claim is now destroying the party.
“[He] made the decision to fire two division leaders. In the end, the decision was withdrawn. Why? Unconstitutional,” the party’s former information chief said.
In October, Labuan Umno chief Datuk Zaharin Mohd Yasin lost his Umno membership, while Alor Setar Umno chief Datuk Mohd Yusof Ismail and former Pasir Salak MP Datuk Seri Tajuddin Abdul Rahman were suspended from the party.
Annuar added that firing someone must be done in a fair manner, including providing the person with a show cause letter.
“Even the disciplinary committee does not have the power to fire someone,” he added, saying that it must obey the orders of the supreme council in the matter.
He said that the basis of firing someone must be on the grounds of them going against party decisions, not against the decisions of an individual.
This comes as BN chairman Ahmad Zahid said earlier that the coalition has yet to decide who to support or which party to form the next federal government with.
The Umno president mentioned that all BN candidates had signed an “akujanji” or an oath declaring that they left any decision-making to the BN supreme council.
Ahmad Zahid also said that any personal SDs signed by BN MPs would violate the oath and make their membership null — therefore vacating the seats that they have just won in the election under the recently-passed Anti-Hopping Law.
However, Annuar said the oath declarations are null and void as the BN candidates who had signed them were not MPs at the time of signing.
The oath only allows the Umno president to negotiate on the behalf of the MPs and not to go against the Umno general assembly, Annuar said.
“If the results of the negotiations are conflicting with the Umno general assembly, then the Umno general assembly must prevail,” he said.
Annuar also joined the call of other Umno MPs, such as party deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, that BN should stay as the opposition rather than forming a government with Pakatan Harapan.
He also insisted that Umno has more in common with its Malay-majority rivals Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia and PAS, rather than PH.
Annuar has been a staunch supporter of PN, which some believed led to him being dropped from being BN’s candidate for Ketereh. PAS ended up taking that seat as part of its clean sweep of Kelantan.
