Quit: The Don Who Was Confronted By ‘Too Old’ Dr Mahathir

Dr Mahathir Mohamad showed up at a forum to confront the panellists, including Kamarul Zaman Yussof, who questioned if he was too old to hold public office.

(FMT) – Prominent political analyst Kamarul Zaman Yussof is resigning from his position as the director of Universiti Utara Malaysia’s political studies institute (Mapan).

Kamarul, answering a query on Facebook about why he had to resign, said: “I am considered anti-Tun (Mahathir) and this could cause problems for UUM.”

Prior to the recent general election, Kamarul had gained notoriety after Mahathir, 92, showed up at a forum at which the Pakatan Harapan chairman’s age was being discussed.

Kamarul was one of the panellists.

In the Facebook post, Kamarul said he had been receiving queries from many people on his wellbeing after he was purportedly included in a list of people who would face action for being critical of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Pakatan Harapan before this.

“There were also people in UUM who have started to question my position as a result of my criticism.” He said he had no personal interest in making comments. He also did not fear retribution from any party.

Kamarul said he was voluntarily resigning as the director of Mapan starting tomorrow, to make life easier for everyone.

“I want to apologise to everyone at UUM who felt the university’s name has been affected by my criticism of Mahathir and Pakatan Harapan. Again, I stress that all my criticism, including those on my personal Facebook page, were made in my personal capacity and does not involve anyone in UUM.”

Kamarul also denied claims he had not conducted any research into political issues in the country, saying he had led a study on the perception of people of Malaysian national issues.

That study, he said, had found that former prime minister Najib Razak and Barisan Nasional were in danger of losing their positions if the 1Malaysia Development Berhad issue was not resolved properly.

“But this study couldn’t be shared with the public and no attention was paid to these findings. After that, I didn’t continue with studies like that.”

Kamarul also denied claims he was a Najib “bootlicker”, pointing to his previous criticism of Najib and BN. He also attached links to articles containing such criticism.