Muhyiddin coy on Umno contest

As flattered as he was when told that former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad had named him as a good candidate for the Umno presidency, Muhyiddin Yassin kept his cards close to his chest without a hint of his intentions come party polls this December.
At the sidelines of a seminar on Malaysian Government Financial Assistance for Malaysian Companies in Kuala Lumpur this evening, the international trade and industry minister was prodded repeatedly on this issue.
But Muhyiddin kept his cool and replied: "That is very flattering. But that is his (Dr Mahathir) view and I don't want to comment very much. Everyone is entitled to their own views".
"Being a former leader, he has his own assessment of the situation and normally we all respect his view, not that I agree or disagree," he said.
Pressed further on whether he would vie for the party’s top post, the Umno vice president said: "I'm of course contesting but which position I'm not going to tell you now."
Muhyiddin also took the opportunity to refute Mahathir's claim that the current cabinet was made up of "yes men".
"No! Even during Tun's (Mahathir) time, we were accused of being yes men. And now he says that we are yes men in Pak Lah's (Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) cabinet.
"Sometimes we say yes sometimes we say no in issues of concern to the nation. When we speak up, we speak inside and not outside.
"We speak with open minds in the cabinet. This also happened during Mahathir's time. But this perception of being a yes man is not correct because we've expressed our stand many times," he said.

tunku : i hope muhyiddin will go for deputy president post, i'm sure he'll get the support.