Late handover to Anwar will kill Harapan in GE15: Syed Husin

A late transition from Dr Mahathir Mohamad to Anwar Ibrahim will kill Pakatan Harapan in the 15th general election, said PKR advisory council deputy chair, Syed Husin Ali.

"If you only hand over (power to Anwar) at GE15, that is killing the party, killing Harapan.

"There is no time for Anwar to campaign, he must have at least two years to arrange all strategies and the campaign," Syed Husin told reporters in Kuala Lumpur today.

He was commenting on Mahathir's remarks that he would have "three years" as prime minister "at most":

This was widely misreported as Mahathir saying he would have "three more years" as prime minister.

This is not the first time Mahathir has mentioned that he would stay in office for up to three years and once dismissed concerns over this saying that three years was the time needed for "corrective work" to be carried out, not how long he would be prime minister.

This, however, runs contrary to a reported agreement he had with Harapan that he would hand over power to PKR president Anwar Ibrahim two years into Harapan's rule.

Anwar himself believes that the transition will happen next year.

Syed Husin said he did not trust Mahathir to keep his word.

"I don't trust what he says [...] Mahathir sometimes makes decisions with other leaders but later he does something else.

"Then he says 'I forgot'. It's not just the Malays who forget but Mahathir is also forgetful," he said.

Syed Husin was speaking to reporters after attending an event at Universiti Malaya to commemorate former PAS president Dr Burhanuddin Al-Helmy, who died 50 years ago on Oct 25.

Syed Husin said PAS' ideals now were a far cry from when Burhanuddin was at the party's helm.

"During his (Burhanuddin's) time, (PAS) was progressive, had an aggressive nationalist spirit and recognised social justice for others, other religions, other races.

"Now it is very different. Now PAS is not very nationalist, its religious views are very narrow, unhealthy and are very much anti-non-Muslims, non-Malays," he noted. - Mkini