Maszlee wants space for PM to serve out full term

Education Minister Maszlee Malik has urged a group of Reformasi veterans to accord Dr Mahathir Mohamad the space and time to serve out a full term as prime minister.

He said this was to allow the prime minister to carry out Pakatan Harapan's planned reforms.

"I am confident Otai Reformis' agenda is for change," Maszlee said when met by Malaysiakini at the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre recently.

"I do not know if their motive is to lift any specific individual, but I am confident those of them who have been crying out ‘Reformasi’ since 1998, they want this (change) to take place in the country." 

On Wednesday, Otai Reformis made a series of calculations on the possibility of PKR deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali becoming the next prime minister with the support of opposition parties Umno and PAS.

This followed Azmin's support of the opposition’s call for Mahathir to stay for a full term. 

The Otai Reformis statement came amid heightened tension between Azmin and his party president Anwar Ibrahim, following the circulation of a sex video implicating the former.

The video is said to be linked to the tussle over the prime minister's post, following speculation that Mahathir wants Azmin to succeed him despite an earlier agreement to hand over the baton to Anwar.

Maszlee is the latest to indicate his support for Mahathir to stay on, after Azmin, Umno and PAS and Johor Bersatu. 

Mahathir, however, has repeatedly promised to honour the Harapan pact to hand over power to Anwar before the end of his term.

Harapan given mandate to implement promises

As Maszlee explained, a prime minister must complete his or her term when appointed to the post.

"To me, when one is appointed prime minister, they usually complete the term, and we know he (Mahathir) will not be in that position forever due to the promise that has been made," he said.

"Even so, why are we rushing in finding a replacement for Mahathir, when he and the cabinet are doing their best?"

Maszlee added that the people have given Harapan the mandate to implement reforms, and that it thus would be unreasonable to urge the premier to surrender his duties to someone else in the near future.

Anwar served as Mahathir's deputy during the latter’s first stint at prime minister before his sacking in 1998.

Upon assuming office again last year, Mahathir initially said he would carry out the handover within two years, but has since revised this to three. - Mkini