Revolt in Bersatu Youth after attempt to steer towards Dr M

At least four Bersatu Youth state chapters and two exco members have revolted after an attempt to steer the wing towards Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is also the party chairperson engaged in a power struggle with Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin.

Bersatu Youth chapters in Terengganu, Sabah, Selangor and Perak issued dissenting statements after the central body yesterday declared it rejected cooperation with Umno, which it is in the government with, and called for a return to Pakatan Harapan.

The decision was made after a meeting of the wing's leadership with Mahathir Mohamad, which it said received two-thirds support while the remaining abstained and none opposed.

However, Bersatu Youth exco member Mahathir Mohd Rais, who was not present during the meeting, said the leaders did not oppose out of respect for Mahathir Mohamad.

Calling the meeting yesterday "strange", he said the meeting with the party chairperson was "desperate" and "irresponsible".

"Surely, the decision made in the meeting would be based on respect towards Tun.

"There were friends present in the meeting who said if they had voiced out (against it) in the meeting, they would have been labelled as rude and insolent.

"That was why they chose to abstain out of respect to Tun," he said.

He said the Bersatu Youth leadership was initially informed that the meeting was supposed to be about the distribution of aid during the Ramadan month.

Meanwhile, Bersatu Youth exco Muzzammil Ismail (above) said the wing's position could split the party and urged it to "forget" Harapan.

"What hope can we have with Harapan? Is (PKR president) Anwar Ibrahim willing to let go of the position of the Opposition leader to Bersatu?

"Is Anwar willing to give the position of Harapan chief to Bersatu? Impossible," he said.

He acknowledged that Perikatan Nasional (PN) is not a registered coalition but expressed confidence the cooperation can be formalised and cited the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

This was despite Umno reportedly already rejecting any formalisation of the coalition.

Terengganu Bersatu Youth, in a separate statement, declared that it was behind Muhyiddin and won't support a return to Harapan.

Likewise, Sabah Bersatu Youth also rejected the idea to return to Harapan.

Selangor Bersatu Youth said PN was the way forward for Bersatu.

Terengganu Bersatu Youth also called for the strengthening of PN as a coalition.

Bersatu is presently split between Muhyiddin's faction and Mahathir Mohamad's faction.

The Harapan government collapsed in late February after Muhyiddin took Bersatu out of the coalition and joined forces with a group of PKR defectors led by former PKR deputy president Azmin Ali.

Together with BN, PAS, GPS and other minor parties, they formed the new PN government.

Former premier Mahathir had indicated he plans to wrest back control of the party in the next Bersatu election and withdraw the party from the PN government. - Mkini