BERSATU USES ALL KINDS OF TACTICS TO ATTACK UMNO - RAHMAN DAHLAN

Datuk Rahman Dahlan

9 July 2021

By Wartawan Nabalu News

KOTA KINABALU: Umno Supreme Council member Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan said PPBM (Bersatu) has been all kinds of tactics to attack Umno when the situation is in their favour.

This came after a recent Supreme Council meeting when he mentioned about withdrawing support for the current prime minister but was only given a short time to express his views.

He said an Umno minister who is not a council had spread the allegation based on a snippet of his views. During the meeting, he mentioned that Umno will lose if Covid cases go gown and the economy improves.

Words got out and people were enraged by his statement, saying that Rahman was willing to gamble on the safety of the people for the sake of Umno politics.

"UMNO's rivals like to cut my sentences, present them in the wrong context and get them misinterpreted to confuse the situation. Many of my other arguments were not reported.

"The recent meeting was to decide whether to continue supporting the prime minister or not. A big decision that is very difficult to decide given that there are many views on 'timing'," he said in a Facebook post today.

"When I said it is 'time' to withdraw support for the prime minister, I meant Bersatu will use all kinds of tactics to attack Umno when the situation is in their favour."

According to Rahman, he gave three examples of when this happened.

"Firstly, Bersatu intentionally gave Umno non-strategic ministerial positions and was denied the deputy prime minister post even though Umno is the biggest and most significant component party in the government.

"Secondly, during the Sabah State Election last year, a lot of independent candidates were sponsored by Bersatu to defeat Umno.

"Thirdly, when Umno assisted the prime minister in making decisions and voted to support the 2021 Budget, Bersatu continued to pressure Umno with various tactics and political ploys to weaken Umno after it was passed."

He also disclosed that Bersatu has alleged Umno of working with DAP and Pakatan Harapan to maintain their position and topple the current government.

"For Bersatu, the partnership concept does not exist in their political dictionary and Bersatu really knows how to play politics, I salute them."

Meanwhile, Rahman stated that the nation’s efforts to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic will not stop only when a Prime Minister changes, let alone if the new Prime Minister comes from the ranks of the existing government.

"In the meeting, I also emphatically stated that millions of Malaysians have downgraded from their economic statuses ... Umno as a party that fights for the fate of Malaysians must take immediate action to save the country's economic situation which is gripping the lives of the people.

"I also argued how the efforts of Umno ministers in the cabinet to deal with Covid-19 were “troubled” or “undermined” by some quarters in the cabinet. When Umno ministers close the front door, others open the back door.

"Against this background, I argued that it is not impossible that Bersatu will not give credit to Umno if Covid-19 has calmed down.

"I sympathise with the Umno ministers who were instructed by the Prime Minister to manage this Covid-19 pandemic as they were heavily criticised when the situation got worse. My concern is that when Covid subsides, the hard work of these UMNO ministers will not get the credit it deserves."

Rahman added that in reality, Bersatu has repeatedly proven before that they are willing to set aside Umno's contribution for the sake of survival or political continuity when they feel safe.

"The big issue here is the 'trust deficit' or the people's declining confidence in the Prime Minister's ability to deal with the Covid pandemic.

As the head of government, if the Prime Minister is not trusted, whatever he does will not get the support of the people because the very low level of confidence of the people will make the government's efforts ineffective. This is one of the reasons why the campaign to address Covid was not successful.

"I hope this explanation can provide the right and accurate context of my discussion in the recent meeting. I forgive those who like to slander but I will not forget," he stressed.