Umno supreme council's first meeting since Cabinet formation to take place tonight

SHAH ALAM – The Umno supreme council will have its first meeting after the formation of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s unity Cabinet tonight.

Its supreme council member Datuk Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi said this would be the first meeting since six Umno members were handpicked for Anwar’s cabinet.

The six are Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir, Law and Institutional Reforms Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin and International Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz.

“Umno supreme council should remain a guide and a check and balance to the government without compromise.

“The government needs to be urged to speed up the formation of Royal Commissions of Inquiry (RCI) on (former Attorney-General) Tommy Thomas, Tabung Haji, and Batu Puteh, among others,” he said in a Facebook post.

Dr Puad said Perikatan Nasional (PN) cannot object to such a probe and should be open to detailed investigation.

“This is in-line with PN’s tagline of ‘Caring, Clean and Stable'.

“This is not about revenge or abuse of power but this is about finding the truth,” he said.

On Monday, Anwar said there were several serious lapses in the alleged RM600bil expenditure under the previous administration.

Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who was also Perikatan Nasional chairman rebutted the claims and said that he had never embezzled or misused funds meant to help the people and that if he did, investigations would have started a long time ago.

On Tuesday, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki announced that the commission had opened an investigation into the allegations and they would summon several prominent individuals to assist investigations.