BOMBSHELL – ‘MAHATHIR MAY GANG UP WITH MUHYIDDIN & AZMIN AGAIN’ – RONNIE LIE HITS THE NAIL ON THE HEAD: YET PARTY MATES INCLUDING ANTHONY, CHIN TONG – PERHAPS OVER-EAGER TO BE MINISTERS AGAIN – STEP UP THE PRESSURE ON ANWAR TO LET UNDER-PERFORMING MAHATHIR BE PM FOR THE 3RD TIME

DAP’s Sungai Pelek assemblyperson Ronnie Liu has voiced his objections to the idea of Pakatan Harapan choosing former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad as its prime ministerial candidate, as has been mooted in negotiations within the coalition.

In a Facebook post early this morning, Liu said he was worried that Mahathir might use the position of Harapan prime ministerial candidate as a bargaining chip to negotiate with his former ally and current Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

“He may gang up with Muhyiddin and Azmin Ali again if the offers are good and dump Haparan,” claimed Liu who has a history of criticising Mahathir and was even referred to his party’s disciplinary committee last year after publishing a piece called “Mahathir: The Paper Tiger”.

Liu (photo) also questioned if Mahathir had the ability to get enough numbers among sitting MPs and said that if he failed to do so, Harapan would risk losing all its credibility as a political coalition.

He also wondered aloud if the Yang di-Pertuan Agong would be willing to see Mahathir even if he did have the numbers.

“Even if Mahathir becomes prime minister, he may create new problems or even scandals to make life difficult for Anwar and other Harapan leaders again.

“He may go back to his old ways again and Anwar as the deputy prime minister will find it difficult to stop him,” Liu added.

Presently, Liu’s party DAP is supporting Mahathir’s bid to be prime minister again for the so-called “Pakatan Hapan Plus” coalition after failing to convince Warisan to nominate an Anwar Ibrahim-Mukhriz Mahathir combination for the top two positions.

“Mahathir may not want to step down after six months as promised and may again refuse to pass the prime minister position to Anwar.

“He may resign and walk out of Harapan again. Or he may just dissolve Parliament,” said Liu.

Liu also cautioned that even having an agreement of Mahathir and Anwar as prime minister and deputy prime minister candidates could trigger Muhyiddin to call for snap elections.

Mechanisms in place to ensure Dr M steps down in six months, explains DAP

There are mechanisms in place to ensure Dr Mahathir Mohamad would step down at the stipulated period if he becomes prime minister for the third time, according to DAP.

In an exclusive interview with Malaysiakini, party organising secretary Anthony Loke acknowledged there would be reservations and scepticism regarding the matter.

“Of course, people can question if he will keep his promise. Our answer to that is six months down the road, there are mechanisms to make that happen.

“PKR has 38 MPs. Without them, Mahathir cannot continue to govern.

“Each party will be able to bring down the government by itself if they pull out. If the promise is not kept (by Mahathir), PKR has the option to force an election by that time,” he added.

According to Loke (below), Pakatan Harapan is obliged to form the government with its allies because of the mandate given during the 2018 election.

Responding to a question, he said DAP is more inclined to learn from past mistakes instead of indulging in a blame game on who is responsible for the collapse of the Harapan government.

“Of course if you want to play the blame game, everyone will blame each other. We are willing to learn from the past and move on.

“If we play the blame game, one side will blame Mahathir, his side will blame another. There will be no end to that.

“I am not saying Mahathir didn’t make any mistakes. We have told him that he resigned without consulting anybody and that caused the collapse of the (Harapan) government,” he added.

Loke also confirmed that Mahathir, 95, had requested to helm the nation for six months before passing the baton to PKR president Anwar Ibrahim.

For context, Harapan – Bersatu, DAP, PKR and Amanah – had signed an agreement on Jan 7, 2018 naming Mahathir as their candidate for prime minister and Anwar as his successor.

This time around, “Pakatan Harapan Plus” is proposing a repeat of the combination from 1993 to 1998 with Mahathir as the prime minister and Anwar as number two.

‘Mahathir and Anwar must work together’

Elaborating, Loke said the Mahathir-Anwar dynamics must not be seen as a zero-sum game and the pair must work together if the mandate from voters in 2018 is to be respected.

“As far as DAP is concerned, we don’t look at Anwar and Mahathir as a zero-sum game. They must work together.

“We need the numbers to unseat Perikatan Nasional. So both leaders must work together,” he added.

On the same note, Loke said DAP understands that it would be a difficult decision for Anwar to set aside his differences with Mahathir again.

“We fully understand this,” he added.

On whether Mahathir had tried to position his son Mukhriz (above) in the “Pakatan Harapan plus” negotiations, Loke replied in the negative.

“To be fair to him (Mahathir), he has never taken his son’s political future as a consideration (in the discussions). He never said his son must be given positions,” he added.

Loke also clarified that discussions focussed on two combinations – Anwar and Mukhriz as well as Mahathir and Anwar. Warisan president Shafie Apdal was never in the running.

Yesterday, Malaysiakini reported that Warisan had objected to the Anwar and Mukhriz combination.

MKINI