Make sure you attend tonight’s meeting, Zahid tells Isham

Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has challenged Supreme Council member Isham Jalil to attend tonight’s council meeting to air his grouses about Umno’s cooperation with DAP in person.

(FMT) – “I call on Isham to come to tonight’s Supreme Council meeting to voice his displeasure at (Umno’s) cooperation with DAP,” Zahid said at an event here.

“He hasn’t come to the last three meetings. Isham needs to be brave and attend tonight’s meeting.”

The Umno Supreme Council is expected to meet at Menara Dato Onn at the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur at 8pm.

In a Facebook video yesterday, Isham said the Malays were rejecting Umno as it had strayed from its core principles and was willing to act as “DAP’s lackey” in the unity government.

Isham also said that some Umno leaders were acting “more DAP than the actual party itself”, excessively promoting DAP to the point of causing displeasure among grassroots members.

His remarks followed the results of last Saturday’s by-election, where PAS’s Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar won the Kemaman seat with a convincing 37,220-vote majority over Barisan Nasional’s Raja Affandi Raja Noor.

Speaking today, Zahid also dismissed calls for Umno to work with PAS again.

Umno and PAS joined forces after the 14th general election, forming the Muafakat Nasional (MN) pact in 2019 during their time in the opposition.

However, tension escalated after PAS joined the Bersatu-led Perikatan Nasional (PN), leading to Umno’s exit from MN.

In the 15th general election, Umno contested independently under Barisan Nasional, winning just 30 seats while PN secured 74.

Earlier today, FMT reported that PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man had said the Islamist party was open to working with Umno again despite the “bitter” history between them.

However, he said that any collaboration with Umno must be through PN, which also includes Bersatu – an Umno splinter party.