PM confident democracy will prevail over deep state operatives

Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today that there have been numerous attempts to create friction between Putrajaya and the Malay rulers.

However, the prime minister believes those behind these moves will not succeed.

"There have been a lot of attempts to make the rulers unhappy with the government.

"They (the instigators) singled out the Rome Statute and things like that. 

"It will fail. They can try as (much as) they like," he told reporters, after launching the Malaysian Autoshow 2019 in Serdang this morning.

Mahathir was asked if he agreed with Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah's opinion that the government must be protected against a "deep state" that sought to remove it through undemocratic means.

Saifuddin said this in the wake of the cabinet's decision to withdraw from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

'The people elected us'

Mahathir also expressed his confidence that democracy would prevail over such attempts. 

"It will fail, because this government is elected by the people and this is a democracy. You can't just get rid of the government and substitute it (with something else).

"Unless of course, we want to drop democracy and become a kleptocracy. You can (then) become an autocracy."

Last Friday, Mahathir announced Putrajaya's withdrawal from the Rome Statute.

In his speech, he blamed detractors for creating confusion on how the treaty would have affected the rights of Malays and the rulers, which he said was untrue.

Mahathir also pointed to a “political” attempt, possibly involving some members of the royal family, to smear Harapan’s name and engage the royalty to sign an order against him. - Mkini