‘St Regis Move’ merely a fabrication?

SHAH ALAM - MCA claims the ‘St Regis Move’ is merely a fabrication by Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and his deputy Datuk Seri Mohamad Hassan to save their own pride following Barisan Nasional’s (BN) loss in the 15th General Election (GE15).

A source within MCA claimed the betrayal of the 10 BN MPs linked to the St Regis Move to support the Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister during hung parliament was an attempt to cover up the election strategy used by Zahid.

The source said the party had never betrayed BN and had always backed up the coalition at its highest and lowest after failing in the previous two elections.

“The MCA leadership had never failed to attend the Umno General Assembly (PAU) including on Friday.

“However, we were disappointed with the Umno president’s (keynote) speech earlier. What was the point of inviting us if we were treated as such?

“For MCA, the claims that the St Regis Move was rubbish and created by him (Zahid) and Mohamad. We don’t want to interfere,” the source told Sinar Premium on Friday.

The MCA source commented on the exposure by Zahid regarding the St Regis Move arranged by several Umno MPs with the PN leadership a day before the unity government formation was formed.

Zahid, in the exposure, said the St Regis Move was not only to thwart the formation of the unity government, but it was considered a move to remove the deputy prime minister from the position of BN chairman.

The source considered Zahid’s claims related to the St Regis Move as rubbish as there were no MCA MPs present at the St Regis Hotel in Kuala Lumpur on the date as said.

It was disputed that Mohamad, also known as Tok Mat, labelled 10 BN MPs including those from MCA who signed the statutory declaration (SD) supporting Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as the prime minister post-GE15, as a betrayal.

The source said the BN deputy chairman himself had a private meeting with PN Secretary-General Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin at his home after the GE15 results were announced.

“What was Tok Mat’s motive for going to Hamzah’s home after the GE15 decision was announced, considering he was the deputy chairman and BN election director responsible for collecting the SD supporting Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as prime minister?” the source questioned.

The source revealed there were over 10 BN MPs who signed the SD supporting Muhyiddin as prime minister however, there were those among them who did not send such documents.

“I don’t want to speak about it in detail because I want to maintain BN’s image. Let Zahid and Mohamad say what they want to say because only god knows everything.

“If they could say wabillahi and wallahi in the hall, but decide to say a different statement outside, what can I do about it.

“What’s important is I want to state that MCA remains with BN,” the source who was a senior leader of the party said.

An MIC senior leader when contacted denied Zahid’s claim of deputy president Datuk Seri M Saravanan was a traitor for refusing to join the government led by Anwar.

“MIC made the resolution not to support any party, be it PN or PH. That is all,” said the leader.