Khairy to stay with PN govt until confidence vote, says ‘trust issue’ with Zahid

Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin says he will continue serving the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government led by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin pending the determination of its legitimacy in Parliament next month.

The coordinating minister for the Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme said he wanted to continue his work to ensure that the country reaches herd immunity against Covid-19.

Adding that he was still an Umno member and loyal to the party, Khairy said it was also important for him to accomplish the task of ramping up the vaccination rate in the country.

“Let me do my job. The vaccination is a matter of the lives of Malaysians. So long as there is no vote (against the government), let me do my job. For Umno, I am an Umno minister. Once we have done with our voting, we can decide on what’s next.

“I’m still in the government because I have a trust issue with the Umno president (Ahmad Zahid Hamidi),” he told reporters at Iskandar Malaysia Studios.

He was responding to Zahid’s press conference on Aug 3 calling for the withdrawal of support by Umno MPs for the PN government.

Khairy, who is science, technology and innovation minister, attributed the trust issue to several actions taken by Zahid.

He said the issue arose when the Bagan Datuk MP sent a letter to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong claiming that all Umno MPs supported PKR president Anwar Ibrahim for prime minister.

“I was never consulted by the president and I had never given permission to the president to use my name,” he said.

Khairy said there was also the issue of an audio recording of a conversation between the president and the opposition leader, Anwar, which was initially denied by Zahid.