It is often claimed that Musa Hitam resigned as deputy prime minister in 1986 due to irreconcilable differences with his then boss, Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
However, the decision to quit was not something that built up over time, but happened rather suddenly when Mahathir accused Musa of trying to topple him.
This false accusation, Musa believes, was spread by a trio, who were known as "AIDS" - which is short for Anwar Ibrahim, Daim Zainuddin, and Sanusi Junid.
In his book 'Frankly Speaking', Musa recalled how Mahathir in late 1985 started ranting to the Umno supreme council about someone trying to topple him, without mentioning names.
"During the whole time he was speaking, I was naive enough not to think that he was speaking about me. Instead, I was silently cursing this unnamed person.
"I remember turning to Daim, who was sitting beside me, to ask who on earth the prime minister was talking about. Daim, who was then finance minister, replied that he didn't know," he stated.
Musa later found out that "a group called AIDS" had been spreading "negative stories" about him, but he did not take them seriously at the time.
Then in December that year, Musa said he finally asked Mahathir who was trying to topple him.
"As far as I was concerned, such an individual was committing too serious a crime to be ignored.
"In that spirit, during my visit to him at the Ministry of Defence the following morning, I asked him. 'Who was it that you have been talking about? Who is trying to oust you?'
"His answer was as brutal as it was to the point: 'You-lah!'."
After recovering from the shock of the revelation, Musa said he made up his mind to resign as deputy prime minister, feeling he could no longer serve if not trusted.
"My decision to resign had very little to do with irreconcilable differences, incompatibility, or even (with Tengku) Razaleigh (Hamzah)," he said, referring to Mahathir's assertions that he quit due to frustration that Tengku Razaleigh was appointed to the cabinet despite losing the contest for Umno's deputy presidency in 1984.
He added that his resignation was also not due to the Memali Incident in 1985, in which Musa had been blamed for the deaths of 14 alleged religious deviants and four police personnel, nor was it due to differing leadership styles.
Meanwhile, Musa also denied allegations that he instigated Tengku Razaleigh to challenge Mahathir during the 1987 Umno elections.
Instead, Razaleigh had decided to contest for the Umno presidency on his own, and Musa said he himself defended his Umno deputy president's post against Ghafar Baba who had succeeded him as deputy prime minister.
Musa also said that while he supported Razaleigh's bid against Mahathir, he had no intention of being in the Kelantan prince's cabinet should the pair (Tengku Razaleigh and Musa) win in the party polls.
The 1987 Umno elections resulted in narrow victories for Mahathir and Ghafar.
A legal challenge to the results would later result in Umno being deregistered, with Mahathir going on to form Umno Baru, while Tengku Razaleigh created Semangat 46. - Mkini
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