JOHOR BARU, June 21 — As political rhetoric grows ahead of Malaysia’s six state elections, a Johor Umno official today urged Malaysians to reject Perikatan Nasional (PN) and its chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

Johor Umno secretary Datuk Abdul Halim Suleiman described the former prime minister as a dangerous “political chameleon” seeking to preserve the interests of his party Bersatu, and PN coalition.

“When we talk about the former Umno deputy president, Bersatu president and former prime minister, perhaps the most accurate label for Muhyiddin is being the ultimate hypocritical person.

“Why not, as he doesn’t practise what he preaches?” Abdul Halim said in a Facebook post.

He added that Muhyiddin who is Pagoh MP suggested the latter to be untrustworthy as he and his current federal Opposition lawmakers ramp up their attacks against Umno and the DAP.

“Muhyiddin said that after 50 years, he did not imagine that Umno could cooperate with DAP. In actual fact, he was the first to warmly accept DAP leaders such as Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng during their eagerness to topple Barisan Nasional during the 14th general election in 2018.

“Due to his hatred against Umno, the same party that took care of him for decades, Muhyiddin was willing to conspire with DAP simply to seek revenge as well as to feed his hunger for power,” Abdul Halim said in a statement.

He appeared to be referring to Muhyiddin’s statement last Saturday that claimed the Malays and Chinese who are the country’s two biggest demographic groups were angry with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim due to the unlikely alliance between Umno and DAP.

Muhyiddin claimed during the PN Youth Machinery Launch Rally in Shah Alam, Selangor that the anger was due to the Chinese voters who voted for PH in the previous general election as they did not expect that Umno will be with DAP.

Abdul Halim, who is also the Tebrau Umno division chief, hit out at Muhyiddin for holding the record as the most successful hypocrite and traitor in the country’s political history.

“When Muhyiddin was in the top leadership of both Umno and the government in 2011, he labelled DAP as being a chauvinist party.

“He accused DAP for not upholding the fate of the Malays, but instead fought for a Malaysian Malaysia,” he said.

Abdul Halim claimed these were the negative points that Muhyiddin directed at DAP, as at that time they were seen as being his “enemy”.

But the Umno man added that Muhyiddin changed his remarks when needed to be friendly with DAP due to a personal political agenda,

“During a speech in January 2018, he said that Bersatu’s principle was to give 100 per cent support to PH candidates from DAP, Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) or PKR.

“At that time Muhyiddin was very confident as Bersatu and PH had managed to cooperate after he was expelled from Umno. As a result, PH won in GE14.

“Likewise in the case of his current relationship with PAS in PN, he once labelled the Islamist party as a deviant party,” the grassroots Umno man said.