INTERVIEW | In August last year, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced he and his associates, who had been sacked from Bersatu, would be forming a new Malay-based political party.
The announcement came after their civil suit against Bersatu and its top leadership was set aside by the Kuala Lumpur High Court. At this juncture, there were six core members in Mahathir's camp who were seen to be behind the new party.
They were: Mahathir, his son Mukhriz, Simpang Renggam MP Maszlee Malik, Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, Kubang Pasu MP Amiruddin Hamzah, and Senator Marzuki Yahya (above) who was also Bersatu secretary-general.
However, when the time came for Mahathir to announce the name of their new party, one of his associates, a rather prominent one, was not part of the picture.
The missing part was Syed Saddiq, who was once dubbed as Mahathir's blue-eyed boy. It was later understood that he had another idea, which was to form a new youth-centric political movement, now called Muda.
Malaysiakini, in an interview with Marzuki last week, posed a question about Syed Saddiq to the Pejuang pro-tem deputy president, trying to gauge his sentiment on the youth leader after the latter left their group.
"Syed Saddiq was one of the icons polished in Bersatu back then, whom we have successfully projected as a youth icon.
"When the split happened in Bersatu, he made a decision to form his own party, which is called Muda, and decided not to go with us (forming Pejuang) as he has his plans to focus more on the young people.
"However, to me, Syed Saddiq, whom I regarded as a comrade and younger brother when we were in Bersatu, with whom we have been through thick and thin together, I respect his decision. We are not against each other," said Marzuki.
For the record, Syed Saddiq was Bersatu Youth chief during Mahathir's time as the party's chairperson. The Muda co-founder was also one of Bersatu's seven founding members.
According to Marzuki, not only does Pejuang not hold any grudge against the former youth and sports minister for going his separate way, but they are also ready to work with Muda politically.
"If Muda wants to work with us on the basis of our mutual struggle (for the country), then we welcome everyone. Being on different platforms is not a big issue.
"In Pejuang, we also have a younger generation of leaders such as Abu Hafiz Salleh Hudin who we appointed as the pro-tem youth chief, to lead the youths in Pejuang. God willing, he can be one of the future leaders who can cooperate with Syed Saddiq for the benefit of our beloved nation."
Mahathir vs Anwar
Meanwhile, touching on another political tussle involving Pejuang, Malaysiakini also asked Marzuki about the bad blood between Mahathir and PKR president Anwar Ibrahim.
Ties between the two veteran politicians soured yet again after the fall of the Pakatan Harapan federal government in February last year. Mahathir was accused of blocking Anwar from becoming prime minister when the nonagenarian resigned from the post instead of passing it to the Port Dickson MP.
To this, Marzuki said such an accusation was baseless. Instead, he claimed the party that should be blamed for this was PKR itself.
"The majority of those who left the Harapan government back then had come from PKR. We all know that this group from PKR was led by Azmin Ali," he said.
Azmin was formerly a deputy president in PKR. However, throughout Harapn's administration, he was seen as more aligned to Mahathir than Anwar.
Mahathir and Anwar's relationship became more strained as opposition parties tried to find common ground in order to retake Putrajaya from the new Perikatan Nasional government led by Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin. But both the politicians refused to support each other as a prime minister candidate.
To Marzuki, he is optimistic that a truce can still happen between the two leaders.
"I don't see it as something that is impossible to happen. Anything can happen. What is important now is that we must know where we are heading."
"What is important now, if we have the same narrative to save the country and the current situation, we can stick together. So, I do believe that working together again (with PKR) is not impossible. Just that we must know how we want to work together again." - Mkini
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