Umno members should support Ismail as PM, says Annuar

Communications and Multimedia Minister Annuar Musa yesterday said that Umno members should support the leadership of Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob as he had been able to resolve various challenging issues that no other prime minister had ever confronted.

He also said that the move by some party members to belittle Ismail showed a lack of party spirit.

“Are we not ashamed that our party members are trying to weaken the PM who is from our party with only 38 seats?” he told a media conference.

He added that the leadership of Ismail should be supported as he had had to handle various issues including the Covid-19 pandemic, the impact of rising oil prices and unity between the government and the opposition through the memorandum of understanding.

“These matters put PM Ismail Sabri from Umno in a situation which has never been experienced by any other PMs. So it is not appropriate to run down the PM from your own party, the PM endorsed by Umno and who represents Umno,” he said.

He was commenting on the statement of Johor Umno liaison committee deputy chairman Nur Jazlan Mohamed, who reportedly said that Ismail was Umno’s weakest prime minister ever.

Annuar said Nur Jazlan was not in the government and was unaware of many matters.

“As he is not close to the PM, there is much more that he does not know, and if he has a motive, he is therefore influenced by his own political inclinations.

“How is the PM going to represent his party which has only 38 seats besides battling Covid-19 and the economic challenges? We should assist and be sympathetic towards him instead of making baseless allegations,” the Ketereh MP added.

Annuar also questioned the actions of some Umno members attempting to weaken the leader from their own party when others were giving support to the prime minister.