Now, Annuar says Umno snubbed Muafakat Nasional registration on Zahid’s orders

PUTRAJAYA, Jan 6 — Tan Sri Annuar Musa today blamed Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi for the continued failure to formalise the Muafakat Nasional (MN) political coalition with PAS.

He purported that Zahid issued a directive in November 2020 to not register the PAS-Umno coalition, in a party meeting following some “indecisiveness” which emerged during the coalition’s registration process.

“In the latest decision, it was decided that there was no need for MN to be registered formally but will remain as a cooperation on matters related to Islam and the Malay community.

“It was also decided that Umno will contest under Barisan Nasional’s logo so the registration of MN is irrelevant.

“Honestly speaking, Umno on the orders of the president decided not to register MN formally,” he said during a press conference at the Federal Territories Ministry here.

Annuar’s version today contradicted PAS vice-president Mohd Amar Abdullah who previously said the effort to formalised MN will be delayed after the name was already taken by somebody else.

The senior Umno leader insisted that the continued failure to register MN was not due to the reason that Mohd Amar gave.

Detailing the chronology of events, Annuar said there had been no concrete plans to formally register MN but Umno decided otherwise.

“Then came the incident where PAS became a coalition member of Perikatan Nasional (PN) of which Umno was not which we then decide there was no need to register.

“Then PN was formally registered, so we thought MN had to be registered as well and I drafted the constitution as well.

“Then November came and when we wanted to enter discussion on the registration, we were asked by Zahid to bring forward a motion in the meeting to voice our disagreement,” he said.

MN was meant to be formalised in May 2020 but this was pre-empted by the Covid-19 pandemic.