“Alhamdulillah, Go Ahead And Resign” — UMNO’s Tok Mat Calls Nga Kor Ming’s Bluff Ahead Of Johor State Election
UMNO’s number two welcomed DAP’s deputy chairman to resign if BN wins Johor, dismissing the latter’s Najib-linked resignation threat as a federal matter with no bearing on the state election.
UMNO has welcomed DAP’s Nga Kor Ming to follow through on his threat to resign if Barisan Nasional (BN) wins the Johor state election, with a senior party leader saying it would pose no problem at all.
UMNO Deputy President Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, better known as Tok Mat, was responding to remarks made by Nga — who is both DAP’s Deputy Chairman and the federal Housing and Local Government Minister — in an exclusive interview with Oriental Daily.
In that interview, Nga said DAP would not rule out pulling out of the unity government if UMNO wins big in Johor, calling it the party’s “red line.”
His reason: UMNO Johor has repeatedly and publicly pushed for former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s early release from prison.
Nga said “UMNO wins big, Najib comes home” was UMNO’s agenda — a fact nobody needed to pretend otherwise about — and that if Najib were truly freed without any wrongdoing, he would be the first to resign.
Speaking to reporters in Muar after breakfast with two BN state candidates, Tok Mat held nothing back.
Alhamdulillah, go ahead and resign. We actually want him to resign. If BN wins in Johor, we are only forming the state government. The state government has nothing to do with federal matters.
Johor Election or Najib Proxy War?
He added that Nga should not “talk big” and that if he truly wanted to resign, he should do so immediately.
Tok Mat was firm that the Johor state election should not be tangled up with issues involving Najib or the federal government, describing the two as entirely separate matters.
Tok Mat’s sharp response reflects a broader tension running beneath the surface of the Johor campaign — one that both sides have been reluctant to address directly until now.
By publicly linking a BN victory to Najib’s potential release, Nga has forced an uncomfortable question into the open: is the Johor state election really about Johor, or is it a proxy battle over the former prime minister’s fate?
Tok Mat’s answer was a clean sidestep — state is state, federal is federal — but Nga’s remarks have already planted the question in voters’ minds.
On BN’s election prospects, Tok Mat declined to speculate on whether the party could hit its target of 40 seats, particularly in Chinese-majority areas, calling such predictions subjective.
He said BN’s campaign was focused on the state government’s track record and Johor’s strong performance in attracting foreign investment, with voters heading to the polls on 11 July.
