Johor DAP chairman Liew Chin Tong said the former prime minister and Zahid – both accused of corruption and associated with Umno’s “court cluster” – have been strategising since May 2018 to place the party in a dominant position.
This is to ensure that both of them walk free from their alleged crimes, he claimed.
“The (coming) Johor snap election is the product of the power struggle within Umno. The snap election brings no benefit at all to the people,” Liew said on Facebook today.
“To put it in the simplest terms, the Johor snap polls is just the first salvo for a snap general election, which will be Najib’s and Zahid’s ‘get-out-of-jail’ pass.”
Describing the trio as the ‘Umno Troika’, Liew charged that this group wanted an early election before the Umno polls so they can decide on the candidates to be fielded.
Of all Umno’s 191 divisions, he argued, the Umno Troika probably had about slightly more than one-third of the support.
“But for now, the group nominally control key positions in the Umno Supreme Council, especially the presidency, which is endowed with all powers, including to decide on election candidates.
“This means the Umno Troika needs to force a general election to be held before the Umno party election.
“Only in such circumstances can they decide on the candidates to be fielded, thus, replacing their ‘kluster menteri’ (minister cluster) rivals with members of their team,” he said alluding to Umno leaders who are part of the current Cabinet.
Liew contended that the trio would continue pressuring Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob to dissolve Parliament so that an election can be called.
He said Ismail, defence minister Hishammuddin Hussein and communications and multimedia minister Annuar Musa were among those not in sync with the Umno Troika.
“Ismail would certainly not want to dissolve parliament so early into his tenure. If the Umno Troika doesn’t get their way at federal level, will they push for state-level elections in states they control, such as Johor or Perak?” he asked.
Liew said after gaining power following the ‘Sheraton move’, Umno’s core leadership, which is aligned with the court cluster, embarked on a disinformation campaign and sabotaged Muhyiddin Yassin’s government until it fell in August last year.
“They won’t stop there. The Court of Appeal judgment on Najib’s case hastened the Umno Troika to push for a snap general election by using Johor as a launchpad,” he said.
However, according to him, the minister cluster has an entirely different strategy for the party, as they want Umno to contest alongside Bersatu and PAS, thus agreeing to have a far smaller share of seats than Umno used to have.