'PAS pledged to back PM to stop him being ousted by allies'

Two Pakatan Harapan component parties may have plotted to oust Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad by way of a no-confidence vote in Parliament, claims Takiyuddin Hassan.

In a press conference last night, the PAS secretary-general said his party felt that something was not right in the way Mahathir spoke of his allies in the ruling coalition.

That was why, he said, PAS pledged to support the prime minister when he was met by party president Abdul Hadi Awang last Friday.

A day after the meeting took place, Mahathir claimed that PAS had undertaken not to support BN in the upcoming Semenyih polls, as the party had done in preceding by-elections. 

The claim was reiterated yesterday, with Mahathir even saying that he received a written agreement from Takiyuddin to that effect.

As the PAS secretary-general explained, however, the agreement was actually a draft pledge to back Mahathir with the support of its 18 MPs if Harapan allies initiated a no-confidence vote against him.

"A draft copy of the letter was given to him. In the draft, we said we would undertake to be with the prime minister if anything happened to him.

"(It) all started from Mahathir's statement himself. As people in politics, we sensed something not right might happen within Harapan.

"He did mention two parties, but I won't name them here," he told the press conference, adding that there is no precedent in Malaysia where a sitting prime minister is ousted by a no-confidence vote.

Level of commitment

Mahathir stating that PAS would withdraw its support for BN in Semenyih came as a surprise to leaders of both parties, as it came just hours after PAS representatives accompanied the BN candidate for Semenyih, Zakaria Hanafi, to be nominated.

Yesterday, Takiyuddin said that while PAS would continue to work with Umno, its commitment in the by-election would not be the same as witnessed in the Cameron Highlands polls.

His statement was taken to mean that the party would downsize its resources when helping out with the BN campaign in the run-up to the March 2 polls.

"Cameron Highlands is a parliamentary seat, of course our commitment is bigger. But this (Semenyih) is only a state seat," Takiyuddin said in last night's press conference.

However, he added that PAS would go all out to campaign for Zakaria.

A joint BN-PAS meeting held last night, he said, pertained to events to be held during the campaign period – including a grand finale ceramah, where Hadi and acting Umno president Mohamad Hasan will share a stage, and another to be jointly attended by the Youth chiefs of both parties.

Umno vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob, meanwhile, said at the press conference that his party had set a record by having a PAS member nominate Zakaria on Saturday.

This showed the level of trust between both parties as the candidate risked being disqualified if PAS had second thoughts about the proposal, he added.- Mkini