The much-anticipated press conference turned out to be the announcement on Muhammad Taib returning to Umno.
The announcement of a media conference where the prime minister was set to make a major announcement created a buzz that Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak may be seeking to dissolve Parliament for the next general election.
Umno supreme council members were already at its headquarters in Menara Dato’ Onn when Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who had cut short a working visit to Perlis, arrived at 4.20pm, followed by Najib who arrived at 5pm.
Earlier, Ahmad Zahid had denied speculations that Najib was calling for polls.
There were no large crowd of supporters, but the media turned out in droves for the press conference which had been scheduled for 4.45pm.
The press conference was held Level 39 of the tower, with only a limited number of local media outlets allowed into the meeting room.
The highly-anticipated announcement turned out to be ex-Selangor mentri besar Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib having applied to rejoin Umno.
“He realised that the Opposition struggle, namely PKR, is in vain and is against his soul and because of that God has opened his heart to return to Umno,” Najib said.
The former Umno vice-president left the party in 2013 to join PAS, and he later left PAS to join PKR in 2015.
“I made this decision to return to Umno five years after leaving this party, and after seeing the situation over there, I feel that my struggle was in vain,” Muhammad said.
He added that he felt disheartened that the Malay agenda was never discussed during the Opposition parties’ meetings that he attended.
“So I felt there was no other road but through Umno which will fight for Malay interests, and that’s my interest, to fight to develop the Malays,” Muhammad added.
He thanked Najib for his willingness to accept him in Umno and promised to help Umno leaders in Selangor to champion the interests of the Malays.
When asked if Muhammad would be given any special position in the party, Najib said that what was important was for Muhammad to rejoin out of his own sincerity.
“We will discuss other matters later,” he added.