KUALA LUMPUR: The United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) said late Thursday night (Oct 29) that all its ministers will stay in the Cabinet for now, while calling for a general election to be held once COVID-19 is under control.
This came amid talk of a possible Cabinet reshuffle, with some suggesting that there might be a deputy prime minister from UMNO.
In a statement released after the party held its second supreme council meeting this week, UMNO’s president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said: “All Cabinet members who represent UMNO will continue in government and commit to protecting the people’s welfare and defend the party’s honour.”
However, the party also stated that the people’s mandate should be returned to form a government that is stable, by holding a general election once the COVID-19 pandemic was under control and at a minimum level.
United Malays National Organisation president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. (File photo: Bernama)
The statement said UMNO would continue to be focused and consistent on the importance of a political ceasefire and the national reconciliation agenda, in order to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic while taking care of the people’s welfare and the country’s peace and political stability.
“UMNO wishes to repeat clearly that we uphold the king's and rulers' council’s decree to ensure the country's administration is well-managed, based on the supremacy of laws and honouring the spirit enshrined in the Federal Constitution, and not taking the country into an emergency like what was proposed by the government,” said Ahmad Zahid.
He added that the party has refined the various views and hopes of the people regarding the upcoming budget to be tabled on Nov 6, and will forward these to the government.
These include the loan moratorium extension issue, household living assistance for those how had lost their income, assistance for unemployed youths, special payments for frontliners and other initiatives to raise Malaysia’s economic development.
Ahmad Zahid also said that any parties’ action to question UMNO’s decision to support the royal decree was irresponsible and extremely regretted. The party would also not hesitate to take firm action to protect both the rulers’ sovereignty and people’s interest.
Although UMNO is not formally registered in the ruling Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition, the support of its 39 MPs are a crucial bloc in supporting Mr Muhyiddin Yassin’s slim parliamentary majority.
On Monday, the party reaffirmed its support for the PN government, but also urged better cooperation, stating that its political relationship should be based on respect and political consensus.
The Monday announcement was in the wake of the Malaysian king and rulers’ council’s decision to reject a proposal by Mr Muhyiddin on Oct 23, to declare a state of emergency amid rising COVID-19 cases and political instability.
A state of emergency would have seen the upcoming parliamentary sitting on Nov 2 suspended.
There was earlier speculation that some lawmakers from UMNO were prepared to work with opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. UMNO politicians have been perceived to be seeking a more favourable redistribution of government positions for the party's lawmakers.
NICE, France: A knife-wielding attacker shouting "Allahu Akbar" beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a suspected terrorist attack at a church in the French city of Nice on Thursday (Oct 29), police and officials said.
Nice's mayor, Christian Estrosi, who described the attack as terrorism, said on Twitter that it had happened in or near the city's Notre-Dame church and that police had detained the attacker.
Estrosi said the attacker had shouted the phrase "Allahu Akbar", or "God is greatest", and kept shouting it even after he had been detained.
One of the people killed inside the church was believed to be the church warden, Estrosi said.
"The suspected knife attacker was shot by police while being detained, he is on his way to hospital, he is alive," Estrosi told reporters.
"Enough is enough," Estrosi said. "It's time now for France to exonerate itself from the laws of peace in order to definitively wipe out Islamo-fascism from our territory."
Police officers secure the area after a reported knife attack at Notre-Dame church in Nice, France, on Oct 29, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Eric Gaillard)
Police said three people were confirmed to have died in the attack and several were injured.
A police source said a woman was decapitated. French politician Marine Le Pen also spoke of a decapitation having occurred in the attack.
Estrosi said the victims had been killed in a "horrible way".
"The methods match, without doubt, those used against the brave teacher in Conflans Sainte Honorine, Samuel Paty," he said, referring to a French teacher beheaded earlier this month in an attack in a suburb of Paris.
A security officer secures the area after a reported knife attack near Notre-Dame church in Nice, France, on Oct 29, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Eric Gaillard)
Giving a toll that differed from figures from the police and French media, Estrosi said he could confirm that two people had died.
He said a third person, a woman who was gravely injured, had tried to escape from inside the church and had fled into a bar opposite the building.
The French anti-terrorist prosecutor's department said it had been asked to investigate the attack.
Reuters journalists at the scene said police armed with automatic weapons had put up a security cordon around the church, which is on Nice's Avenue Jean Medecin, the city's main shopping thoroughfare.
Ambulances and fire service vehicles were also at the scene.
The attack comes while France is still reeling from the beheading of middle school teacher Paty by a man of Chechen origin.
The attacker had said he wanted to punish Paty for showing pupils cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a civics lesson.
It was not immediately clear what the motive was for the Nice attack, or if there was any connection to the cartoons, which Muslims consider to be blasphemous.
Since Paty's killing, French officials - backed by many ordinary citizens - have re-asserted the right to display the cartoons, and the images have been widely displayed at marches in solidarity with the killed teacher.
That has prompted an outpouring of anger in parts of the Muslim world, with some governments accusing French leader Emmanuel Macron of pursuing an anti-Islam agenda.
NICE, France: A knife-wielding attacker shouting "Allahu Akbar" beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a suspected terrorist attack at a church in the French city of Nice on Thursday (Oct 29), police and officials said.
Nice's mayor, Christian Estrosi, who described the attack as terrorism, said on Twitter that it had happened in or near the city's Notre-Dame church and that police had detained the attacker.
Estrosi said the attacker had shouted the phrase "Allahu Akbar", or "God is greatest", and kept shouting it even after he had been detained.
One of the people killed inside the church was believed to be the church warden, Estrosi said.
"The suspected knife attacker was shot by police while being detained, he is on his way to hospital, he is alive," Estrosi told reporters.
"Enough is enough," Estrosi said. "It's time now for France to exonerate itself from the laws of peace in order to definitively wipe out Islamo-fascism from our territory."
Police officers secure the area after a reported knife attack at Notre-Dame church in Nice, France, on Oct 29, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Eric Gaillard)
Police said three people were confirmed to have died in the attack and several were injured.
A police source said a woman was decapitated. French politician Marine Le Pen also spoke of a decapitation having occurred in the attack.
Estrosi said the victims had been killed in a "horrible way".
"The methods match, without doubt, those used against the brave teacher in Conflans Sainte Honorine, Samuel Paty," he said, referring to a French teacher beheaded earlier this month in an attack in a suburb of Paris.
A security officer secures the area after a reported knife attack near Notre-Dame church in Nice, France, on Oct 29, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Eric Gaillard)
Giving a toll that differed from figures from the police and French media, Estrosi said he could confirm that two people had died.
He said a third person, a woman who was gravely injured, had tried to escape from inside the church and had fled into a bar opposite the building.
The French anti-terrorist prosecutor's department said it had been asked to investigate the attack.
Reuters journalists at the scene said police armed with automatic weapons had put up a security cordon around the church, which is on Nice's Avenue Jean Medecin, the city's main shopping thoroughfare.
Ambulances and fire service vehicles were also at the scene.
The attack comes while France is still reeling from the beheading of middle school teacher Paty by a man of Chechen origin.
The attacker had said he wanted to punish Paty for showing pupils cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a civics lesson.
It was not immediately clear what the motive was for the Nice attack, or if there was any connection to the cartoons, which Muslims consider to be blasphemous.
Since Paty's killing, French officials - backed by many ordinary citizens - have re-asserted the right to display the cartoons, and the images have been widely displayed at marches in solidarity with the killed teacher.
That has prompted an outpouring of anger in parts of the Muslim world, with some governments accusing French leader Emmanuel Macron of pursuing an anti-Islam agenda.
