Annuar Musa says won’t return to Umno

KUALA LUMPUR, June 11 — Former senior Umno leader Tan Sri Annuar Musa said that he will not return to the party that sacked him, PAS-owned daily Harakah reported last night.

The former Keterah MP who was reported to have finally become a PAS member yesterday claimed Umno is no longer the choice party for Malaysians since GE13 and causes divisions instead.

“I decided not to return to Umno and to continue my fight,” he was quoted as saying at a Perikatan Nasional (PN) event in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan yesterday.

Annuar, who was formerly the Barisan Nasional secretary-general, was expelled from Umno last December for disciplinary reasons.

At the Seremban event yesterday, he claimed the Malay nationalist party is being controlled by its current president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

He reportedly said he had been in Umno for 50 years and that the party has now self-destructed.

He further claimed that Umno has betrayed the interests of Malays and Muslims in the country.

“Umno was expected to become the party that supports the unification and unity of the ummah and Malaysians, not to become the party that leads to division among the ummah in the country,” he was quoted as saying.

The word ummah of Arabic origin means community but is commonly used in Malaysia specifically to mean Muslims who are also widely perceived to be Malays.

Annuar, who founded a non-governmental organisation championing Malay and Muslim interests called Muafakat Nasional, said he will take part in PN’s roadshows and explain his reasons for joining PAS then.

Last night, national news agency Bernama reported that Annuar had been accepted into PAS and accepted his membership certificate from the Islamist party president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang.