ALOR SETAR, Jan 26 – The issue of Kedah Menteri Besar being away in Kuala Lumpur at most of the time and can hardly be seen in Kedah are among the reasons for UMNO leaders to lose confidence in Datuk Seri Mukhriz Tun Dr Mahathir’s leadership, says Deputy Kedah UMNO Liaison Committee chairman Senator Datuk Seri Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah.
He said the issue had been repeatedly raised by Kedah UMNO leaders but was left unaddressed by Mukhriz. Ahmad Bashah said they were worried that the issue would affect the operations of UMNO and Barisan Nasional (BN) machineries in facing the next general election.
“We want the Kedah UMNO Liaison Committee chairman to be replaced, and also for the Menteri Besar to be changed. I’m not the only one who feels this way, you can ask other leaders in UMNO, MCA, MIC, Gerakan,” he told reporters when met at the Bakar Bata State Constituency Service Centre here Monday.
The political atmosphere in Kedah has heated up in the past few days when Mukhriz came under pressure from several Kedah state assemblymen and members of Parliament as well as UMNO senior state leaders led by Ahmad Bashah who openly voiced that they had lost confidence in Mukhriz as Menteri Besar and state UMNO Liaison Committee chairman.
“In the early stage after Mukhriz was appointed as Menteri Besar after the 13th general election (March 2013), Kedah UMNO appeared to be very strong. However, after the UMNO election (end of 2013), people started to feel it. Many claimed that they could hardly meet him. Either it was him who made it hard (for people to see him) or the people around him who made it difficult, because all appointments must go through his officers first,” Ahmad Bashah said.
He said there was a time, at the (Kedah UMNO liaison) committee meeting in Kuala Lumpur last year, 10 (out of 15) division leaders were absent, but no efforts were taken (by Mukhriz) to find out why. Ahmad Bashah, who is also Bakar Bata assemblyman, also refuted the allegation that he was given an instruction to openly voice his lost of confidence in Mukhriz’s leadership.
In the meantime, he also said that if people think that he want to sabotage Mukhriz, he could do that long time ago, but he supported Mukhriz and made way for Mukhriz despite the fact that he was the State UMNO Liaison Committee chairman and BN election director.
