NAZRI: IT IS UP TO GRASSROOTS TO CALL FOR ZAHID TO LEAVE
Emulate PH members who stood by their leaders, says ex-minister
IF Umno wants its president, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, to go on leave on the account of his multiple graft charges, a decision must be made at the grassroots.
Barisan Nasional secretarygeneral Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said, based on the party’s constitution, it was up to the grassroots to make a formal call for Zahid to go on leave.
“He was elected by the party’s delegates.
“So, if Umno members want him to go (on leave), they need a movement at the grassroots level to call for a resolution,” he said at the Parliament lobby here yesterday.
Nazri, however, reiterated his earlier stand that the decision to stay or go on leave was entirely Zahid’s, based on the fact that he was legitimately elected to the role.
He drew on Pakatan Harapan leaders, who were previously alleged to have committed crimes but had stood their ground and held on to their posts.
“There is no point to demonstrate that we are whiter than white, even when they didn’t resign,” he added.
NST Online reported Nazri telling Umno leaders that they should take a page from PH, which were then the opposition, where their members stuck by their leaders through thick and thin.
He drew on how DAP secretarygeneral Lim Guan Eng and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who was then de-facto leader, was not called to go on leave or step down when they faced criminal charges and jailed.
Nazri had also said Zahid was also not a civil servant and had no reason to go on leave.
He said Zahid was appointed by the delegates.
“There can’t be calls without a specific motion from the divisions. So, if the person in question does not want to go on leave, I don’t feel that there is anything anyone can do about it,” Nazri told the portal two weeks ago.
He, however, said the Umno Supreme Council would have the final say in such matters while responding to the calls by the party’s youth wing chief, Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki.
Zahid, who was deputy prime minister, faces 45 criminal charges.
The former home minister had allegedly committed 10 acts of criminal breach of trust and eight corruption offences involving more than RM42 million, as well as 27 money laundering offences involving over RM72 million.
He pleaded not guilty to all the charges and is out on a RM2 million bail.