He said it was not surprising why the former deputy prime minister often shared the stage with the opposition in its series of tours to run down the government.

Nevertheless, he said he expected Muhyiddin and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia’s (Bersatu) ties with the opposition to not last long or threaten Umno or the Barisan Nasional (BN).

“The party which wants to fill the position of Prime Minister must be a dominant party. If Bersatu (Muhyiddin’s new party) wants to be dominant, they must get a big chunk of seats in the general election.

“But do the opposition, whether Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), DAP or PAS want to hand over their seats to Bersatu to become the dominant party? I do not think they are willing to marginalise their own party,” he said.

Ahmad Shabery said this to reporters after opening the Rompin Umno division’s delegates meeting at Politeknik Muadzam Shah here today. Also present was the division’s acting head Hasan Arifin.

He added that Bersatu could not be a dominant party by itself as it did not have adequate personalities to contest in at least 100 parliamentary seats in the coming general election.

Commenting on Muhyiddin’s claim that the opposition could win in 45 BN seats with only a small swing of voters, Ahmad Shabery said the opinion was unacceptable because Umno and BN were stronger now.

Meanwhile, in his speech Ahmad Shabery, who is also Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister, described Umno president Najib Razak as an individual who dared to uphold the democratic system.

He said this was proven with Najib’s biggest transformation in demolishing the wall built by a predecessor who consolidated power when he did away with the quota system to challenge for the post of Umno president.

“When Najib became Umno president, he said he would not be at the top forever. If he was power-crazy, surely he would have tightened the rules further,” he said.

-BERNAMA