Zahid disputes report on Muafakat Nasional in Sabah

Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has disputed a news report citing him as saying that Muafakat Nasional may be less suitable (kurang sesuai) or unsuitable (tak sesuai) for Sabah in a speech last night.

"Muafakat Nasional must be adapted to the political situation in Sabah due to its different backgrounds... that is my statement, full stop!" he was quoted as saying by Umno Online.

Zahid added that whoever covered his speech should not have an agenda to change what he meant.

"As such, I hope they will fix their report, alleging that I said Muafakat Nasional was unsuitable for Sabah, so please correct it if they are honest," he added.

The Umno Online report then cited a Malaysiakini article "which alleged" that Zahid said Muafakat Nasional was less suitable to the political atmosphere in Sabah.

Malaysiakini's report published this morning originally quoted Zahid as saying the PAS-Umno pact was "not suitable" to Sabah. This was then corrected to "may be less suitable" to reflect his actual quotes.

Zahid made the remarks at a ceramah in Kampung Pimping last night ahead of the Kimanis by-election.

His verbatim remarks are as follow:

"Ini lah Muafakat Nasional, yang mungkin kurang sesuai di Sabah, kerana latar belakang politik berbeda.

"Tetapi kesesuaian ini, inilah Muafakat Sabah bermula di pilihanraya kecil Kimanis."

(This is Muafakat Nasional, which may be less suitable in Sabah because of the different political background.

(But making it suitable, this is Muafakat Sabah which starts with the Kimanis by-election).

His remarks can be viewed at the 1:23:18 mark of Umno Online's Facebook live video of the ceramah.