Umno supreme council member Mohd Razlan Rafii has claimed that the DAP appears to be favouring Dr Mahathir Mohamad as the prime minister candidate once more as a ploy to garner more Malay support.
“The decision of DAP and their allies to propose Mahathir as prime minister is not strange.
“If you see his writings of late, the former prime minister is constantly praising and defending DAP. He (Mahathir) is intensely trying to prove to DAP he will defend them if attacked by Perikatan Nasional (PN).
“DAP wanting Mahathir as prime minister for the third time is nothing more than a political show to pull in the support of the Malays to ‘Pakatan Harapan Plus’.
“DAP knows that Amanah and PKR are no longer able to attract Malay support,” Razlan (above) said in a statement today.
The latter was referring to a blog posting by the nonagenarian yesterday urging the Malays to overcome their fear of the DAP as it was just a political party and not a global institution.
As such, Razlan accused the Harapan coalition party of having a “you scratch my back, I scratch yours” deal with Mahathir, who is the disputed Bersatu chairperson.
However, DAP has not specifically said that the party is calling for Mahathir to return as premier instead of Harapan chairperson and PKR chief Anwar Ibrahim.
The Umno leader’s comments came following an interview between Malaysiakini and DAP organising secretary Anthony Loke (photo) pertaining to a deadlock in negotiations among Harapan Plus components comprising Haparan coalition members, their allies and Mahathir’s faction of Bersatu.
Discussions have been ongoing as Harapan Plus attempts to amass the necessary numbers to reclaim Putrajaya, which was wrested from it when the Bersatu faction led by president Muhyiddin Yassin exited the then ruling coalition against Mahathir’s wishes.
Mahathir, prime minister at the time, resigned as a result and this led to the collapse of the Harapan government.
Bersatu then aligned with several PKR defectors, BN, PAS, GPS, PBS and STAR to form the PN government.
During the interview, Loke said Harapan and its allies explored two combinations for the top two positions – Anwar Ibrahim as prime minister and Mukhriz Mahathir as deputy; or Mahathir as prime minister and Anwar his deputy.
The Anwar-Mukhriz combination was unsuccessful and the coalition is now waiting for PKR to decide whether the coalition would pursue the Mahathir-Anwar combination.
Mahathir, 95, reportedly proposed returning as premier for the third time for a period of just six months before promising once again to hand over the premiership to Anwar, 72.
During the two-year Harapan term in office, their tenure was rife with uncertainties that Mahathir would honour the pact to pass the reins to Anwar.
However, this time, Loke assured that there were “mechanisms” in place to ensure Mahathir would step down as promised.
Mahathir served as prime minister of the country for the first time as head of Umno-BN from 1981 to 2003.
Anwar served as his deputy from 1993 to 1998 before the infamous falling out between the two leaders which resulted in Anwar’s sacking from the cabinet and ultimate jailing in 1999. - Mkini
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