MUAR, June 23 — The clarification by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak that there will be no dropping of his deputy, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, from the cabinet has provided relief to the people of Pagoh, especially members of the Pagoh Umno division.
Pagoh Umno deputy head Ismail Mohamed said the clarification proved that the report spread in the blogs and social media about the removal of Muhyiddin as the deputy prime minister was an attempt to sour relations between the two leaders.
“Datuk Seri Najib has personally clarified that there is no question of the deputy prime minister being dropped (from the Cabinet). This clearly shows that it was an attempt by the opposition who try to break up the strong bond between the two national leaders,” he said at a briefing on the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), here today.
Ismail, who is also the State Exco for Agriculture and Agro-based Industry, was thankful that the community in the Pagoh Parliamentary constituency did not over-react over the rumour concerning their leader over the past few weeks. As such, he reminded the constituents not to be influenced by reports which had not been validated.
The blogs and social media had reported on the possibility that Muhyiddin might step down from the post of deputy prime minister to pay more attention to efforts to further strengthen Umno.
It also followed the rumour of a Cabinet reshuffle by the Prime Minister particularly to bring in leaders from the Barisan Nasional component parties namely the MCA and Gerakan.
Muhyiddin, however, said he would continue to serve as the deputy prime minister for as long as his services were required and said that so far nothing had been raised about his position in the government.
– BERNAMA
