PETALING JAYA: Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has defied increasing pressure from the party as well as pro-Umno NGOs to step down, Lim Kit Siang (pix) said today.
Ahmad Zahid declared that the only way to remove him as Umno president was through the party’s general assembly by over 146,000 delegates to fulfil the requisite two-thirds quorum, according to the DAP adviser.
“This raises the question whether Umno will have to build a mega-stadium with the capacity to accommodate at least 146,000 delegates before Zahid could be removed as president,“ Lim said in a statement today.
“The past four days marked the lowest ebb in the 69-year-old history of Umno, as with 38 MPs in Parliament with the exodus of 16 MPs, Umno has created history in having the least number of Umno MPs in Parliament for six decades since 1959.”
“Now, from the 54/222 parliamentary seats won by Umno in the 2018 General Election, Umno is left with 38 MPs – i.e. from the height of Umno MPs comprising 56.7% of all MPs in 1964, 49.7% of all MPs in 2004 to the present 17.1% of MPs in Parliament.”
If Larut MP Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin is right, 36 BN MPs including 33 from Umno, had only just a month ago signed letters of support for Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and that Zahid had been kept completely in the dark about it, then as many as another 20 Umno MPs may leave the party, Lim said.
“This may result in Umno, which at one time claimed the divine right to rule the country, to be reduced to the regional status of PAS or even in having fewer MPs than PAS for the first time in Malaysian history,“ the DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri added.
