Dr Mahathir Mohamad has alleged that DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng prefers Warisan president Shafie Apdal as the opposition coalition’s prime minister candidate.
He, on the other hand, said he was “not against” Anwar Ibrahim taking the top job provided the PKR president could prove he had the support of a majority of MPs.
Interviewed on radio station BFM 89.9 this morning, the former prime minister denied believing Anwar was unfit to succeed him. He insisted that he had intended to pass the baton to Anwar back when he was in office.
“No, I am not against him. But he wanted me to resign before I finished my work. I would step down, I told him.
“In fact, I told him (to) just give me six months because I had work to do,” he said during the radio station's Breakfast Grille segment.
“Yes, he will become prime minister but there is one thing you have to accept, that he (must) get majority support.
“I can’t determine (it), I can’t just say ‘you become the prime minister’. You have to get the support of the majority of the members of Parliament,” Mahathir elaborated.
When asked why he thought Shafie was a better prime minister candidate than Anwar, Mahathir pointed to Lim. He also claimed that Harapan needed him on board for his appeal to Malay voters.
“Well, this is the feeling of Guan Eng, of DAP.
“Anwar doesn't want me to be there at all. But if I'm not there, the Malays will not support Pakatan Harapan. And he will not be able to continue as prime minister,” he answered.
Malaysiakini has contacted Lim for comment.
Last June, Mahathir publicly endorsed Shafie as the opposition pact’s prime minister candidate following a meeting with DAP and Amanah's top leaders.
At the time, DAP and Amanah had proposed for Harapan to discuss the proposal.
However, PKR has insisted on no one but Anwar as its prime minister candidate.
Pejuang won’t work with charged persons
Since being booted out of Bersatu last year, Mahathir has gone on to start Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang).
Pejuang, on a platform of anti-corruption and Malay nationalism, had its application to be registered as a political party rejected by the Registrar of Societies recently.
Asked who Pejuang intended to collaborate with during the next general election, Mahathir was evasive but did not rule out Umno when asked.
Although, the Pejuang chairperson insisted they will not work with politicians who have been charged in court.
“The major party will have to work with us in order to form the government because, in an election, it is most likely that neither left nor right, neither Perikatan Nasional nor Harapan, will get a clear majority,” he said.
“I will not work with people who are charged in court for crimes. Whether they have been found guilty or not (doesn’t matter) because people know they are guilty,” Mahathir added.
Aside from the Langkawi MP, Pejuang comprises former Bersatu MPs Mukhriz Mahathir (Jitra), Shahruddin Salleh (Sri Gading) and Amiruddin Hamzah (Kubang Pasu).
Three Selangor assemblypersons - Harumaini Omar (Batang Kali), Mohd Shaid Rosli (Jeram), and Sallehuddin Amiruddin (Kuang) - have also declared their allegiance.
Senator Marzuki Yahaya is a part of Pejuang as well.
Doesn't care about his legacy
The former premier also went on to say he does not care about his legacy.
“I don't care about my legacy, I don't care.
“I'm quite sure when I'm dead and gone, people will run me down and all that.
“It’s not important (because) I’ll be dead anyway, what legacy?” he said.
Mahathir made history as the oldest serving state leader when he led Pakatan Harapan to win the 14th general election in May 2018, two months shy of his 93rd birthday.
Harapan's win marked the first time BN lost the federal government since the country's independence.
Prior to the election, he had quit his long-time party Umno in protest of the 1MDB scandal and set up Bersatu to take on the Malay nationalist party in the polls.
He returned to politics after a 15-year hiatus following his first tenure as prime minister, which spanned a record 22 years.
However, Mahathir’s second stint lasted just 22 months after he abruptly resigned on Feb 24, 2020. Bersatu then quit Harapan, leading to the government’s collapse.
‘They are the terrorists, not me’
Aside from his resignation, Mahathir also made international headlines last year when he wrote that “Muslims have a right to be angry and to kill millions of French people for massacres of the past”.
He was condemned worldwide and social media platform Twitter even removed his offending tweet after initially flagging it for glorifying violence.
The comment, written as part of a longer blog post, was in response to French President Emmanuel Macron's purported remarks about Islam after a French high school teacher who showed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad to his students was violently murdered.
Mahathir later said his comment had been misrepresented and read out of context.
Earlier this year, that comment gained him a spot in the “Top 20 Most Dangerous Extremists Around The World” list by US-based NGO Counter Extremism Project.
Asked about the list, Mahathir defended his comment as being in line with Shariah law but refuted the “terrorist” label.
“It says there - an eye for an eye. If you kill a person, then you should be killed. That is the law in Islam, I’m just stating the law... for the Muslims, it is the Shariah law,” he said.
“They said I despise the West (because) I have condemned them for supporting the Jews even when the Jews committed wrongdoing. Because of that, the West doesn’t like me. Nobody else says that but I say that. Even (at the) UN, I said that ‘you are not fair’.
“They are trying to find something to label me and they labelled me as a terrorist.
“When people like (Tony) Blair, people like (George W) Bush declared war on Iraq (and) today (look) what happened in Iraq? They are the terrorists, not me. I didn't kill a single person,” Mahathir elaborated. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.