He announced his involvement with the group yesterday when visited by 21 committee members of the Coalition of Malaysian Branch Chiefs or Gerakan Ketua Cawangan Malaysia, the group said.

The GKCM secretariat said in a statement that the committee members had called on him at his office at Yayasan Al Bukhary.

Dr Mahathir had told them he was proud that GKCM represents those with the courage to speak the truth in Umno and was pleased with what it had achieved in a short time, the statement said.

The movement of rebel grassroots leaders was announced in November by 20 branch chiefs who met in Puchong, Selangor, and issued three demands:

“First, the Umno president must step down. Second, there should be no sacking of Umno members who criticise or condemn leaders to improve them. Third, the Umno elections must go on.”

They said they had the support of “hundreds of Umno branches” but would not name them for their own safety.

In its statement today, the coalition’s secretariat said that Dr Mahathir had repeated his concern that the support of educated Umno members was gradually being eroded, and he hoped that the presence of GKCM would balance out those that had ruined the party.

“He also hopes that GKCM will strengthen the party in the face of the loss of trust by its members and the public towards the party, which has been saddled with mounting issues of leadership,” the statement read.

The movement took firm shape after various Umno branches, mainly in Negeri Sembilan and Selangor, begun raising questions about the government-owned investment company 1Malaysia Development Bhd, news reports about a deposit of RM2.6 billion in Najib’s private bank accounts in 2013. It also came in the wake of the dismissal of deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin from the Cabinet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDujOPWcPeM