KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 12 — Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today declared he has forgiven the coalition’s 10 MPs who threw their support behind Perikatan Nasional (PN) to form the federal government when the country was in a leadership deadlock after the general election two months ago.
However, Zahid indicated that it is not quite water under the bridge, saying he will be watching the 10 MPs for any moves that could shake the coalition government under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“Since that matter has passed and now they are with the unity government and I state that I have forgiven what has happened.
“But I am with the disciplinary board monitoring the current stance and also whether they are doing any movement or move,” he told reporters after visiting the trade booths set up at the World Trade Centre here in conjunction with the ongoing Umno general assembly.
He was quick to add that he has confidence the 10 MPs will not go rogue, but will remain with Umno and BN in supporting the “unity government”.
“I am also confident that the first step was a mistake because the situation at that time was uncertain,” he said.
Zahid, who is also deputy prime minister, said Umno and BN have instructed the 10 MPs to revoke their statutory declarations (SD) backing PN chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and ensure all future decisions are made as a bloc.
BN has 30 MPs. Of the 10 MPs who signed SDs for Muhyiddin, six were from Umno and the remaining four were from BN component parties.
Zahid also told reporters he exposed the matter to Umno delegates yesterday so they could see how the “unity government” came to be.
“The disclosure I made in the presidential briefing was a closed door disclosure.
“I shared the information because they need to know what happened behind the establishment of the unity government and because we have to move forward we have to move forward so it's best to make that event a lesson,” he explained.
