He was commenting on PPBM’s claim that almost 200 Umno members from Kampung Tok Sani – a village under the Bagan division – had quit the party and joined the new political party.
They were reported to have submitted their PPBM membership forms at an event in the village on Sunday.
“I sent two of my division members to the event to look at each of those alleged former Umno members,” Shaik Hussein told FMT.
“And they found out that only around 10 were from Tok Sani. They didn’t recognise most of the others, while some were actually members from other Umno divisions around Penang.”
Also present at the event was the villagers’ spokesman Ahmad Shamsuddin, who had claimed he had been an Umno member for nearly 50 years.
Ahmad had represented his neighbours in handing over 111 completed membership forms to PPBM supreme council member Marzuki Yahaya.
These were in addition to about 80 forms submitted earlier by individual village residents, Ahmad had said.
According to Shaik Hussein, both Ahmad and Marzuki were disgruntled former Umno members who joined PPBM for their own political survival.
“Marzuki was also unhappy that he lost the Bagan division chief’s post to me. The two were looking for a new platform to continue in politics, and PPBM is just a place for them to get the positions they couldn’t in Umno.
“This is just like (former Umno supreme council member) Mukhriz Mahathir who tried many times and failed to be Umno vice-president. So he formed a new party and made himself the deputy president,” he alleged.
Shaik Hussein challenged Ahmad and Marzuki to publish the full names and IC numbers of the villagers they claimed were former Umno members.
“If it is true they were with Umno, then I will come out and say so in public.”