PETALING JAYA: Muafakat Nasional chairman Tan Sri Annuar Musa (pic) has refuted the claim that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim saved Umno from being deregistered by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
"It is a false narrative by present Umno leaders to solicit support for Anwar and DAP (in) the present situation," the former Umno secretary-general said in a Facebook video in an interview with Suara TV.
"It just doesn't make sense that Anwar was the saviour, because if it were true, we would have signed statutory declarations (SDs) supporting him before the Sheraton Move.
"However, Umno first signed the SDs supporting Dr Mahathir and later Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin for Prime Minister after the fissure within Pakatan Harapan emerged," he said.
Annuar said he had also checked with Muhyiddin, Dr Mahathir and former Selangor Barisan Nasional chief Tan Sri Noh Omar if such a move to deregister Umno was on the cards, but all have denied it.
"To me, it is just an afterthought to portray Anwar as the saviour of Umno and Muhyiddin as the villain," added Annuar.
At a Jelajah Madani event in Guar Chempedak, Kedah on Saturday (July 15), Anwar said Dr Mahathir and Muhyiddin had planned to ban Umno after Pakatan assumed power in 2018.
He said he strongly objected to the idea and raised the matter with other Pakatan components, which also did not agree and so the move by Bersatu stopped there.
Anwar said he had brought this up to convince Umno members not to abandon the party by voting for Bersatu and Perikatan Nasional in the upcoming state elections.
He also said Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was being relentlessly attacked by Perikatan because he had steadfastly refused to bow down to its demands during Muhyiddin's administration.
