Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin has claimed that his former deputy Hamzah Zainudin had led a “grand design” to take over the party.
The former prime minister claimed that his succession plan for the party had led to his endorsement of Hamzah, which helped the latter win the Bersatu deputy presidency uncontested.
“Unfortunately, after winning uncontested, he did things that contradicted party discipline.
“According to the party constitution, the deputy president must assist the president - but what happened was the opposite.
“There was a movement orchestrated by him among the division heads urging me to resign. Maybe they thought that if I resigned, Hamzah would become acting president,” he told Berita Harian.
Malaysiakini has contacted Hamzah for his response.
During Bersatu’s annual general meeting in September last year, Muhyiddin revealed that there was a plot to collect signatures to oust him, causing chaos to erupt.
The power play appeared to have gathered some steam after some 120 Bersatu division chiefs purportedly signed statutory declarations backing Hamzah.
However, the AGM later concluded with Muhyiddin’s position secure, as delegates unanimously passed a resolution to name him as Bersatu’s prime minister candidate.
Since then, the party has devolved into infighting, concluding with Hamzah’s sacking, along with 16 other party leaders and lawmakers, on Feb 13.
In the aftermath, Bersatu saw a mass exodus of grassroots leaders and members, who declared their loss of confidence in Muhyiddin.
‘PAS wanted the split, so they should leave PN’
Commenting on Bersatu’s place in Perikatan Nasional, Muhyiddin said his party has little room to utilise the opposition coalition as its main platform.
“This is not Bersatu’s choice but forced upon us. Therefore, we must think about forming a new coalition in line with Bersatu, and that can carry the party’s struggle forward.
“Bersatu is the founder of PN; no one can force Bersatu to leave PN. If Bersatu decides to leave PN, we can leave at any time,” he asserted.
He stressed that PAS should be the one to leave PN as common practice dictates that a party that initiates the severing of ties with another component party must be the one to leave.
“For example, PAS once left Pakatan Rakyat when it was not in agreement with the parties in the coalition.
“Bersatu had also left Pakatan Harapan when there was a policy disagreement,” he explained.
He added that he has initiated informal discussions with other smaller political parties outside of those within the government to explore options for a pact heading into the 16th general election.
Split after 6 years
On June 9, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang announced that his party had ended its political cooperation with Bersatu after six years together.
The decision came at the height of a strained relationship between the PN components, which saw top leaders from both parties openly criticising each other.
Hadi had previously accused Bersatu of making unilateral decisions and failing to maintain internal discipline within the coalition.
The parties’ ties further soured after a political manoeuvre in Perlis last year, which caused the Islamist party to lose the menteri besar post to Bersatu.
When asked whether Bersatu is mulling any cooperation with Harapan for the Malacca polls or GE16, the Pagoh MP said such a matter has yet to be discussed.
“If there is such a proposal, it needs to be discussed at the party level first,” he commented.
As for Bersatu’s future, Muhyiddin reiterated that this is still his last term as the party’s president.
“A change of leadership to refresh Bersatu and take the party to a higher level will happen,” he said. - Mkini
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