PUTRAJAYA: Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin believes no senior party leader will be sacked at the supreme council meeting today.

“I am 100% certain that there will be no sacking of senior Umno leaders tomorrow (today),” he told reporters here yesterday when asked about rumours that deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and vice-president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal would be sacked from the party at the meeting.

Asked about the agenda for the meeting, the youth and sports minister said the council was due to discuss dates for the next general assembly and administrative matters, Bernama reported.

“Considering that the supreme council has not met for three months, there are several administrative matters to be resolved. Certainly, there will be discussions on current political issues,” he said.

On the Umno political bureau meeting at Perdana Putra on Monday, Khairy said the meeting was conducted in a very conducive environment. “Of course, we all had to speak to each other,” Khairy said when asked if there was good interaction at the meeting.

Muhyiddin and Mohd Shafie, who were dropped from the Cabinet in the reshuffle on July 28, were among those who attended the meeting.

The Malaysian Insider yesterday reported a veteran Umno leader’s view that Umno will grow weaker if it sacks its deputy president and vice-president at the highly anticipated meeting.

Tan Sri Sanusi Junid, a former Kedah menteri besar (MB), said the reasons for sacking them were weak and would anger the grass roots who still supported the duo. “If the sacking happens, it will be over differences of opinion. That means only yes-men would be left,” Sanusi said.

He said if the two were sacked, it would mean Umno leaders were afraid of them and were not thinking the issue through. “It means the leaders do not have a long-term strategy and only know ‘panic management’,” said Sanusi, who was Umno secretary-general and vice-president under Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

A message circulating on WhatsApp is claiming that Muhyiddin and Mohd Shafie, Kedah MB Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir, Kulim-Bandar Baharu member of parliament (MP) Datuk Abdul Aziz Sheikh Fadzir, former Terengganu MB Datuk Seri Ahmad Said, Datuk Hamidah Osman, and Sepanggar MP Datuk Jumat Idris will be axed from Umno at the meeting today.Those on the list have been vocal in demanding more answers regarding the 1Malaysia Development Bhd saga from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. 

The Umno supreme council has postponed its meeting twice since the Cabinet reshuffle. — Bernama/The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in digitaledge Daily, on September 9, 2015.