Judging by the policy speech of Umno president Najib Abdul Razak, the Umno general assembly this year seems nothing more than a show of force by Najib, PAS MP Mahfuz Omar said today.
“This year’s assembly is merely for Najib to prove that he controls the party.
“The only problem is, the rest of us are still wondering why this gentlemanly Bugis warrior is still afraid of letting deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin and vice-president Shafie Apdal give their winding-up speeches,” he asked.
“The Umno general assembly is just a place for steaming pau ,” he quipped.
PAU, the Bahasa Malaysia acronym for the Umno general assembly, also refers to a dumpling which is typically steamed.
According to the Pokok Sena MP, Najib’s policy speech this morning did not chart out the party’s direction but was merely used as a platform to defend himself.
“He failed to conclusively answer all the issues plaguing him like the 1MDB scandal, the RM2.6 billion donation and other issues,” he said in a statement.
Mahfuz said as a self-proclaimed Bugis warrior, Najib was only peddling emotions by taking potshots at Muhyiddin and Shafie who have both criticised him.
Alluding that they had not done their jobs, Najib, in his opening speech today, said the role of the party deputy president and vice-presidents was to help the president.
Muhyiddin barred
Muhyiddin and Shafie attended today’s session after appealing to the party supreme council to be allowed to speak as per tradition at the winding-up session.
The supreme council, however, made the unprecedented decision to only allow Najib to speak at the closing of the assembly.
Traditionally, the wing chiefs, all vice-presidents and the deputy president take to the stage to give their winding-up speeches before the party president does.
Vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told reporters it was Muhyiddin who first breached tradition when he held a rally in Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur on Monday on the eve of the wings general assemblies.
Muhyiddin had held the event as it was announced earlier by Umno that he would not be allowed to officially open the wings' assemblies as had been the tradition.
