Shafie as PM candidate mooted by Guan Eng, says Dr M

It was DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng who proposed Mohd Shafie Apdal as Pakatan Harapan’s prime ministerial candidate, said former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“It was Lim who suggested Shafie be our prime minister (PM) candidate.

“But unfortunately, although the proposal came from him, Lim went back to say it should be (PKR president) Anwar Ibrahim.

“I had initially asked them if they really wanted Shafie and they said yes. But after they met Anwar, they changed their position,” Mahathir (photo, above) said, as reported by The Malaysian Insight today.

Malaysiakini has contacted Lim on this matter and is awaiting his response.

The proposal to nominate Shafie, who is the Warisan president, as Harapan’s candidate for PM came about last month after PKR remained firm in rejecting Mahathir as the candidate.

The party had insisted that Anwar should be the PM candidate for Harapan instead.

Mahathir had announced on June 27 that Harapan component parties DAP and Amanah were in support of Shafie as the PM candidate.

However, DAP and Amanah later came up with a joint statement that they would leave the matter to be decided at the coalition level.

Following a Harapan presidential council meeting on July 5, the coalition said it was sticking to its earlier decision to have Anwar (photo) as the PM candidate.

Shafie had also previously said that it was DAP and Amanah who had mooted his name.

Mahathir explained today that he does not mind if Harapan does not choose him to be their candidate for PM, but expressed concern whether Anwar could garner enough support.

The Langkawi MP claimed that though there were several MPs who were willing to join the opposition, they would not do so if Anwar was the PM candidate.

This impasse with Anwar was what caused him to support Shafie as the PM candidate, Mahathir said.

“If we do not get Malay support, we cannot overthrow the government. But at the same time, we are having problems as Anwar doesn’t want me.

“And although Anwar says he has majority support, every time his name came up, he lost,” he said.

Mahathir said the Harapan government would not have fallen in February if he had been given the full support of the coalition at that time.

“When I stepped down (in February) and everyone was asked to state who they wanted, I should have been given full support by Harapan because they told me they supported me fully.

“But somehow Anwar convinced them he had the majority and that he had enough support to be prime minister. So, Harapan gave his name.

“I got only 66 votes and Anwar got 92. But that 92 should have been given to me because I was supposed to be their candidate and I was also the previous prime minister. As such I lost and Anwar also lost,” Mahathir said.

Meanwhile, he said, Shafie (photo) is a “positive” choice for Harapan’s PM candidate as Sabah and Sarawak have contributed a lot towards the government.

“The two states are run by their own people and they have performed very well. Although the national level is a much bigger job, the government service was experienced.

“So even if we have a new leader, the experienced administrators will support him,” he said.

When asked whether Malays in the peninsula would accept Shafie, Mahathir said that has yet to be tested.

He pointed out that Shafie had married a Malay woman from Kedah and his children are also “married people in the peninsula”.

Aside from that, Mahathir said Shafie had also been in the federal government. - Mkini