This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on December 3, 2015.

KUALA LUMPUR: Saying that he did not care what action Umno would take against him, deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin threw his support behind nine Teluk Kemang branch leaders hauled up by the party’s disciplinary board.

He said he did not care if he was sacked for showing up at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, because what he was doing was upholding the party’s true struggles.

“What is important to me are the true struggles. I feel I am ready to face any eventuality. But I don’t want to be fired,” he told reporters at the PWTC as he joined the supporters of nine branch leaders facing the disciplinary board yesterday afternoon.

“I came to give moral support to those who had been called up by the disciplinary board. I believe they stated the truth,” the former deputy prime minister said, while stressing that they had rights even though they were ordinary members.

Muhyiddin hoped the disciplinary board would weigh their case and not punish them as they only had a dissenting view on the party leadership.

He arrived at Menara Datuk Onn at about 2pm and was greeted by former Gopeng Umno Wanita head Datuk Hamidah Osman and former Kedah Umno leader Anina Saadudin.

Both women, also sacked from the party, arrived at 1.40pm.

All branch leaders, calling themselves Gabungan Ketua Cawangan Malaysia, recently held a press conference urging party president Datuk Seri Najib Razak to quit the post.— The Malaysian Insider