KUALA LUMPUR: Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has not ruled out the possibility of the party spreading its wings to Sabah.
This follows the announcement by 13 elected representatives in the state announcing that they were leaving Umno.
Muhyiddin said the party leadership had received several proposals to open up branches in Sabah.
However, he said these proposals needed to be studied in detail before any decision is made.
“On principle, however, we feel that the matter should first be discussed with Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) and Pakatan Harapan (PH). We will have to wait and see.
“There was a time when we thought we would wait for the right moment and we had an understanding with Warisan. But if they (the elected representatives who left Umno) decide to join us, we don’t have any divisions or branches (in Sabah yet),” he told reporters after presenting RM100,000 collected via the Tan Sri Muhyiddin Foundation Charity Golf tournament to 10 charitable organisations.
Elaborating on the situation in Sabah, Muhyiddin said the decision by the 13 elected representatives to leave Umno must have been made because they knew “what had happened” to the party.
“I read the statement from (now former) Umno Sabah liaison committee chairman Datuk Hajiji Mohd Noor, who explained the decision to leave the party and why they will now be pro-PH. They no longer have any confidence in the (Umno) leadership, in terms of the future of the party and other problems. For us, this is a good development and of course it will strengthen PH’s position,” he said.