PETALING JAYA: With Perikatan Nasional’s Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin (pic) being nominated Opposition leader in Parliament, an Umno supreme council member has asked if there has been a power shift within the coalition.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday (Dec 14), Datuk Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi questioned the reason for the role going to Hamzah.
He pointed out that the Opposition Leader is usually the prime minister candidate, who in this instance should be coalition chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
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“Is Muhyiddin no longer interested in becoming prime minister?
“Is Hamzah the Perikatan poster boy for the 16th General Election and PM candidate?
“Is this a power shift?” he asked.
Puad said it was puzzling if the 75-year-old Muhyiddin did not want to be prime minister again despite his age and reported health problems.
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“Maybe Muhyiddin is not willing to be a warlord in Parliament. He also has baggage,” he said.
In Puad's view, there were other strategies in play here as "Hamzah is not a small child... he is a great destroyer."
“Five years is too long for him to be the Opposition Leader. How does he want to play?" he wrote, adding that Muhyiddin's political career should not be allowed to perish at the hands of his coalition's own secretary-general.
