Amanah: PH’s 2 amazing doctors set to detox Malaysia of ‘toxic politics’

KUALA LUMPUR; The early announcement by Pakatan Harapan of Dr Mahathir Mohamad for prime minister and Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as his running-mate has panicked Umno, Parti Amanah Negara said today.

Amanah strategy director Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the pairing of the “amazing duo” of Dr Mahathir and Dr Wan Azizah for the nation’s top leadership positions if Pakatan Harapan were to win in the general election was to address the “Malay dilemma and the manufactured confusion” by Umno.

He said in a statement that this decision by PH debunked the oft-repeated Umno propaganda that the DAP actually dominated the coalition.

“The naming of Dr Mahathir as prime minister-designate and Dr Wan Azizah as deputy prime minister-designate has obliterated all such nonsense as that Mr Lim Kit Siang would become the new PM or Lim Guan Eng would be installed as the Deputy Prime Minister.”

The people can clearly see that Umno’s claims were false and that the PH was “still very much a Malay-Muslim leadership, albeit an inclusive and progressive one”.

Dzulkefly said both Umno president Najib Razak and PAS president Hadi Awang had now lost their race and religious cards in the GE14 campaign when talking to Malay voters.

He said Umno was frantic that the PH had unleashed “these two stellar doctors to ‘detox’ the overly ‘toxic politics’ of Malaysia and ostensibly ‘critically ill’ nation”.

That is why Umno’s spin-doctors and media machine were on over-drive to character assassinate Dr Mahathir. That is why, he added, ministers led by Najib were “spewing malicious and defamatory remarks” against the 92-year-old Dr Mahathir “round the clock”.

He said voters could now see PH’s agenda for change and its action plan, including the eventual nomination of Anwar Ibrahim as prime minister.

Dzulkefly said it was understandable why Umno had hit the “panic button”.

PH, he said, had secured 53% of the popular vote in Peninsular Malaysia and 51% nationally in the last GE and it was now likely that the Dr Mahathir-Dr Wan Azizah team would “provide the Midas touch” required to trigger the demise of the BN government.

He noted that the prospect of having the first woman deputy prime minister in the country should galvanise women voters. It shows that PH does not just pay lip-service to women empowerment.

He also noted that Dr Mahathir had asked for forgiveness for his excesses in the past, and that certain allegations against the PPBM chairman had been proved false.

For instance, former attorney-general Abu Talib Othman had clarified that Dr Mahathir was not responsible for the sacking of former lord president of the Supreme Court Salleh Abas and the removal and suspension of several other judges.

Also, Dzulkefly said, the Memali tragedy was “laid flat to the face of Hadi and his acrimonious Amanat Hadi.

Noting historical events in countries such as Mexico, Paraguay and India where political parties that had ruled for long periods had fallen due to corruption and autocratic misrule, Dzulkefly asked if it was now the turn of Malaysia to prove this to be true. -FMT