Pahang MB Adnan said to be next on cull list in Umno power shift

By admin-s Last updated May 27, 2014

Former Terengganu menteri besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Said’s removal from office is said to be just the beginning, with speculation pointing to Pahang’s Tan Sri Adnan Yaacob as the next Umno MB to face the axe.

Hazlan Zakaria, The Ant Daily

And like Ahmad’s ready-made undertaking letter of having to resign after one year post-GE13, reports point to possible health reasons for Adnan’s withdrawal.

This is probably to avoid a royal confrontation since Adnan is said to have close links to the state royalty and a forced resignation may not sit well with the palace.

But unlike Terengganu, this may not be the primer to a state government crisis as the BN majority in Pahang is huge, with Pakatan Rakyat holding only 11 out of the 42 state seats.

And with Najib loyalists being dominant in his “home” state, Adnan would lack the required numbers to rattle BN if he tries to pull a “Terengganu-Move” and precipitate resignations of assemblymen from the party.

Observers said to avoid such embarrassment, Umno may well have canvassed its assemblypersons beforehand. Lessons learned from the Terengganu near-fiasco.

Talk of MBs facing the axe was started by Umno-owned Malay daily Utusan Malaysia and the news has spread like wild fire in Umno-linked blogs.

Insiders were quoted as saying that of all the Umno MBs, the three that were in Najib’s cull list were Terengganu’s Ahmad, Pahang’s Adnan and Negeri Sembilan’s Datuk Seri Mohamad Hassan.

Other Umno MBs like Kedah’s Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir were said to be safe from the cull, however, whether from relevancy, pedigree or having fulfilled their KPIs in GE13.