If I had joined Bersatu, 3.8 million Umno members would pee on my grave - Zahid
KUALA LUMPUR - Former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told the High Court today that if he were to jump to Bersatu, 3.8 million Umno members would have peed on his grave.
During the trial of his bribery, criminal breach of trust (CBT) and money laundering case before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah, the Bagan Datuk MP said he said this to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in June 2018 after the 14th General Election (GE14).
Zahid said he told the former prime minister that he will not join Bersatu and had never planned to dissolve Umno.
"I was given the trust to carry out my duty as president, I do not want to dissolve the party, I am not willing to see Umno be buried without a tombstone, not for the party which was established since 1946 to simply go down.
"I told the former prime minister that if I had joined Bersatu and destined to die the next day, my grave would be flooded as 3.8 million Umno members will pee on my grave," he said.
Replying to a question by his lawyer Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Zainal, Zahid said Dr Mahathir had also said that Umno had no future and that it had died and rejected by the Malays.
Zaidi: What happened? Zahid: He asked me to jump party and join Bersatu and leave Umno and he said Umno can't be trusted, they (Umno) are thieves, corrupt, dirty and disgusting, I remember those words until today.
Zaidi: After that? Zahid: He asked that Umno be dissolved and told me to tell the members to join Bersatu.
Zaidi: What about the second meeting? Zahid: In the second meeting with Dr Mahathir, there were five Umno top leaders present in September 2018. During that time, the same thing was said to all of us.
Zaidi: Can you name the five leaders? Zahid: Myself, Umno Deputy Vice-President Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan and three Umno Vice-Presidents Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid and Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin.
As a result of the meeting, he said the five of them decided to continue becoming members of the opposition.
Recalling the incident, Zahid said the meeting happened after Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan and former Gopeng Wanita Umno chief Datuk Hamidah Osman informed that Dr Mahathir wanted to see them.
He said he declined the request for three times as he felt that it was unnecessary to see Dr Mahathir.
However, he said eventually he agreed to meet the Langkawi MP in June 2018.
Zahid was facing 47 charges, 12 of which were for CBT, eight for bribery and 27 money laundering counts involving millions of ringgit of funds belonging to charity foundation Yayasan Akalbudi.
