Muhyiddin Yassin cannot be removed from his Umno deputy president post because he was elected through the party general meeting, but he can be sacked as a party member, a former Umno minister says.
Former information minister Zainuddin Maidin said sacking Muhyiddin as a party member would automatically remove him from his position of deputy president.
Zainuddin ( photo ) said with concrete proof, Muhyiddin can be sacked from the party and this is exactly what the party secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor is doing.
Tengku Adnan said yesterday the investigation initiated against seven Umno leaders over their open remarks about the party’s top leadership was for the good of the party.
"We received a lot of complaints but the major one is about these seven people... we actually can take action against them, but at this moment they (committee) are still finalising the investigation papers," Tengku Adnan had said.
In his latest blog posting today, Zainuddin said some Umno 'commanders' were trying to persuade division chiefs and members to accept the action, while some even claimed up to 95 percent of the party division chiefs were ready to support it.
According to an internal poll , at least 154 out of 191 Umno division chiefs want the party's supreme council to take action against errant party leaders.
Party leaders branded as cowards
Zainuddin, a former long-serving Utusan Malaysia editor-in-chief, added that although Muhyiddin has been very careful with his words, he branded party leaders as cowards for not speaking up in a time of national crisis at a recent forum in Johor Baru, which triggered party president Najib Abdul Razak's supporters to be more aggressive towards him.
"Action to remove Muhyiddin must be done before the Umno AGM soon because the appearance of Muhyiddin as the deputy president at the assembly may cause chaos, where Najib may be seen as losing his reputation as president if any provocation occurs between both sides," he said.
Zainuddin said Muhyiddin must be removed faster, so that they can promote the future candidate for deputy president post before the assembly, to make sure Najib ( photo ) can stay in power until the next general election.
"This is also to give chance for Najib to consolidate his power within the party and repair the country's economy, but this not necessarily will regain Malay support for Umno, due to the bad image of the leadership."
He said Muhyiddin and the few others who are still planning to oust Najib must be ready to be sacked, because Umno division chiefs think the move to save Najib as a need to save the party and the people as a whole.
"They have made this decision because Najib is the King of Money with long experience in Umno," Zainuddin said.
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Muhyiddin must fight back if axed, or be tagged coward
154 division chiefs want action against errant Umno leaders
