MOTHER OF ALL POLITICAL SCOUNDRELS: PLAIN & SIMPLE – BY QUITTING, MAHATHIR TOPPLED HIS OWN GOVT, SURRENDERED THE FEDERAL & SEVERAL STATE GOVTS TO THE ENEMY & STOPPED THE FEARED RISE OF ANWAR – YET HYPOCRITE THAT HE IS, DR M SAYS HIS POL-SEC TOLD HIM ANWAR PLANNING TO DEMAND THE DPM POST – WHO IS THIS POL-SEC WHO COULD MAKE DR M SO PARANOID HE WOULD BETRAY THE NATION & ALL VOTERS WHO HELPED HIM & PAKATAN WIN GE14? AND WHY DOESN’T HE WANT ANWAR AS DPM AFTER PROMISING TO PASS THE BATON AFTER APEC? HOW MANY LIES HAS MAHATHIR BEEN TELLING MALAYSIA?

PETALING JAYA: Cracks have returned to the Pakatan Harapan coalition even as it prepares for a possible parliamentary showdown next week to topple Muhyiddin Yassin, who came to power after the political crisis last week.

This comes as PKR and DAP, now the lynchpins of PH after the bulk of PPBM members broke ranks to join the Perikatan Nasional coalition led by Muhyiddin, planned roadshows nationwide to galvanise public support.

But despite attempts to show unity in the fractured coalition, PH leaders are already engaged in a blame game over the cause of the 21-month-old government’s collapse.

Earlier today, Syed Husin Ali, one of PKR’s founders, put the blame on Mahathir despite the former prime minister agreeing to return to the PKR-DAP bloc to revive PH.

“Thank you, Tun Mahathir. By resigning, you have succeeded in:

• Toppling the government you lead;
• Surrendered the federal and several state governments to the enemy;
• Stopped the feared rise of Anwar.

“No need to apologise,” the former PKR deputy president said on Twitter.

Syed Husin’s post on Twitter

Mahathir’s resignation as prime minister and the exit of PPBM from PH caused the downfall of the coalition government last week.

Mahathir has since said he had resigned to allow MPs to choose the next prime minister, amid pressure from the pro-Anwar faction to speed up a plan to appoint the PKR leader to the top post.

“As a normal human being, I also make mistakes. I apologise if my resignation was a mistake,” Mahathir had said in a televised speech on Feb 26.

Former education minister Maszlee Malik.

Meanwhile, an aide to Maszlee Malik, who decided to remain in PH, revealed how DAP leaders had undermined the former education minister by cutting down on the budget for his ministry.

Zulfikri Zamir said this includes a cut of nearly half-a-billion ringgit in the budget for security and cleaning services in schools nationwide, causing more than 10,000 to lose jobs.

Zulfikri, who was Maszlee’s press secretary, recalled a meeting between Maszlee and former finance minister Lim Guan Eng, where a senior officer had remarked:

“School security doesn’t need so many workers. The rural schools, just get the volunteers. Those jobless parents could volunteer,” Zulfikri, writing on The Malaysian Insight news portal, quoted an officer as saying.

Zulfikri also claimed that the budget cuts affected co-curricular and uniformed activities as well as Islamic programmes for students.

He further accused Maszlee’s former deputy, Teo Nie Ching of DAP, of bypassing her boss in her communication with Lim’s ministry.

Zulfikri said that in contrast, the finance ministry announced millions of ringgit to boost DAP leaders’ friends who own e-wallet companies, in reference to the budget’s allocation of RM450 million to encourage e-wallet transactions.

“DAP, you are not only responsible for PH’s downfall, but also the return of the corrupt today,” wrote Zulfikri. FREE MALAYSIA TODAY

Dr M blames on Muhyiddin and Anwar for Pakatan’s downfall

PUTRAJAYA: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad blames Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for the fall of the Pakatan Harapan government.

Speaking to Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia members in a closed-door meeting on Sunday (March 1), he said Muhyiddin wanted to leverage Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s desire to be prime minister and create a political crisis.

The former prime minister, whose chairmanship of Bersatu is also in question, said the “real” crisis only happened when Muhyiddin took the party out of Pakatan Harapan.

“On the day when we had the Pakatan presidential council meeting, I received information from my political secretary that Anwar was apparently going to demand that I appoint him as deputy prime minister.

“So of course we got angry. But this did not happen – what happened was that all of the leaders in Pakatan supported me (to go on as prime minister).

“Muhyiddin wanted an excuse for a crisis to happen – but he could not get it from Anwar.

“When he took Bersatu out of Pakatan, that is when the crisis really happened,” said Dr Mahathir.

The closed-door meeting was streamed live on Parti Amanah Negara’s Facebook page.

Dr Mahathir also said that Anwar scuppered his plans to be reappointed as prime minister.

“I was sad that I lost, because Anwar asked Pakatan to nominate him. He had 92 votes. I had 60, or even more. If Pakatan voted for me then I would have gotten the majority.

“He wanted to be the prime minister, even though he knew he couldn’t get the majority,” said Dr Mahathir.

Dr Mahathir said Anwar had always been “obsessed” with becoming prime minister.

“In the past, he had a lot of support. But now, people support me,” he said. – ANN

FMT / ANN