State Umno chiefs to meet at PM’s residence

(The Star) – The Prime Minister has summoned all state Umno chiefs to his official residence today.

The chiefs, who include seven Mentris Besar and two Chief Ministers, will convene at Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s Putrajaya residence at 5.30pm for what is expected to be a political briefing.

It is understood that Najib would want to touch on several current issues such as the Cabinet reshuffle and the appointment of a new Attorney-General.

Negri Sembilan Mentri Besar and Umno chairman Datuk Seri Mohamed Hasan said the meeting was timely.

In doing so, there would be a common story board among Umno leaders at the state level, he said.

Another state Umno chief said he was looking forward to the meeting.

“Whatever I know about the Cabinet reshuffle, I know it from the media,” he said.

“We want to hear it from the horse’s mouth. We’ll be all ears,” said the state chief.

“We will also have questions for the PM.”

He added that such meetings were necessary “when something big happens”, especially now given that the reshuffle involved the axing of two top Umno leaders.

Deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and vice-president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal are no longer in the Cabinet.

The reshuffle saw the appointment of Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as the new Deputy Prime Minister.

“It is a major reshuffle that will have impact on the ground,” the state chief said. “I believe the PM would want to give us his side of the story so that we can take it down to our members.”

However, the top-gun meeting also triggered speculation among Umno politicians that the party president might replace a few of them as state Umno chiefs although he had no urgent reason to do so.

The argument is that Najib wanted people he could trust to be in charge of the state party machinery.

The meeting was scheduled after the cancellation of the Umno supreme council meeting. It was called off to enable a cooling-down period.

A meeting between Najib and the G6 or key office-bearers of all the Umno divisions was also called off.