Speaking at the wing’s general assembly here today, Zahida pointed out that Perikatan Nasional (PN) had lost in state elections but none of its members had called for its chairman (Muhyiddin Yassin) to resign.

“We should support our leaders to help them become stronger, instead of seeking to weaken them. Any action that can weaken the party must be avoided,” she told the delegates at the Umno headquarters at World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur.

Zahida said members of the opposition often stood up to defend their leaders despite being attacked by their rivals.

“Our weakness is that when our leader is attacked, many of us will find ways to overthrow the leader,” she said.

She also said PN’s strength was in “character assassination and creating slander”.

Umno’s “weakness”, she said, was that it did not know how to nurture leaders who would slander their rivals, but only those who could serve and develop the nation.

Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had faced multiple calls to resign following Barisan Nasional’s heavy loss in the recent general election (GE15).

There have also been calls for the presidency and the deputy presidency to be contested when Umno holds its elections later this year.

Earlier, former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin had joined calls for the top two posts to be contested in the party elections.

This comes after a group of Umno divisional leaders urged Zahid not to allow any contests for the top two posts, saying the party needed to be strengthened in view of the upcoming elections in six states.