INTERVIEW | About 20 years ago, Marzuki Yahya, then a corporate figure in the shipping industry, took the first step in his political journey by joining Umno and later climbing up the ranks of its Youth wing to become one of its central exco members in 2004.
He then left the country's largest political party to become a founding member of its splinter party, Bersatu.
Marzuki started making headlines after being appointed as Bersatu secretary-general in 2018, especially after he was involved in an internal power struggle in the party and eventually getting dismissed for aligning with then party chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Now part of Mahathir's new party Parti Pejuang Tanah Air as its pro-tem deputy president, he spoke to Malaysiakini in an exclusive interview about his political journey and his take on current issues surrounding the country's politics, including the future of Pejuang.
Malaysiakini: You were made a senator and deputy minister when Pakatan Harapan became the government. But following the political tussle in Bersatu, you chose to fight against the party president and eventually got sacked. Why did you choose this path and do you have any regrets?
Marzuki: What is more important for me is upholding my principles. There is no use having a position but going against what we are fighting for. And what is the use of holding a position in the government when it is not a legitimate government? It does not matter if we become a minister or a deputy minister if the government is not one the rakyat had voted for.
What happened (during the Sheraton Move) was definitely a betrayal by the other group to get hold of power and this is not what I was fighting for when I joined Mukhriz Mahathir and Muhyiddin Yassin (in Bersatu). At that time, we were holding to the principle of fighting corruption, 'Amar Makruf Nahi Mungkar' (Keep what is right and fight what is wrong).
So to change from this principle to committing something worse is something unacceptable to me. I believe that we should stay true, no matter how hard the journey may be.
You have been a politician for quite some time. During the last general election, you contested the Tasik Gelugor parliamentary seat but lost narrowly. Would you contest Tasek Gelugor again or somewhere else and can you tell us a bit about your ambitions in politics?
To me, I'm not a 'full politician'. But on the basis of our struggle for the country, then I took myself into politics when I joined Bersatu to save the country. It was not about becoming an MP. And it is the same case today. I have not decided whether I want to contest again or not or where I would want to contest.
About Tasik Gelugor, although I lost the seat, the margin was only 81 votes. But 18,000 voters there have given their votes to me on the Pakatan Harapan ticket. They didn't give their votes to Perikatan Nasional. So that is also why I have to respect the mandate they gave me.
When I was given the mandate to become a senator by Dr Mahathir Mohamad, I was really thankful because it would give me a lot of experience. But that is not my ambition. My aim is to see that we can have a country that is clean from corruption, where its multicultural society can live happily together.
Pejuang is a young political organisation and it is seen to rely mainly on the popularity of several figures it has, especially Mahathir who has been a prime minister twice. Do you think Pejuang can survive without Mahathir?
When we formed Bersatu several years ago, back then we also did not expect that such a small party with only one MP would carry such weight that it could help bring down the BN government which had been in power for 60 years. So it is not something impossible. With or without Mahathir, what is important to us is our principles. To fight for the country we must hold onto our principles even though it means we would be looked down upon. But we will never ditch our principles.
That is why Mahathir fought for the country and not for himself. If Pejuang can create many leaders who truly fight for the nation, then we definitely would be able to have more statesmen compared to mere politicians in other parties.
With or without Mahathir, his struggle will always be carried on by us because this is a responsibility. If we want to say that Mahathir is someone loyal to a party, then he would not have left Umno because Umno was his party. But he did not choose the party over principles.
There is no use being a strong party [...] like Pejuang itself, it would be useless if the party becomes very popular but is despised due to (a corrupt) leadership.
Mahathir has said that he will not contest in the next general election. Who might be your best candidate for the prime minister's position?
Not only Mahathir, but I think it is everyone's dream to be prime minister. But as I said earlier, the issue now is to protect our country's future. Someone that we support as a leader must be really clean, who truly wants to fight for the nation and holds dearly to the rule of law. If possible, we do not want our country to continue to be known for its kleptocracy. We want to rebuild this country to once again become a tiger in this region and this is the important thing for anyone who wants to be prime minister.
Prior to this, Mahathir's camp had Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman as a youth figure to lead and attract the young people. He has since gone on to form his own party, Muda. What is Pejuang's plan to attract more youths to join the party?
Of course, we have our plan for this. However, at this juncture, we cannot do anything because firstly, our party's registration has yet to be approved, and secondly, we cannot move around much due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the movement control order.
So what we have done was only to have small meetings, with only between 10 and 15 people who are willing to come to us. But now, we have put on hold this activity because we are focusing on helping to save the country though the declaration of emergency has had a big impact on our political movement.
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 pro-tem youth chief to lead the youths in Pejuang. God willing, he can be one of our future leaders who can cooperate with Syed Saddiq for the benefit of our beloved nation.
As someone who started his political career in Umno, what do you think of Umno today? A number of its leaders are facing corruption charges. Do you think that the party can free itself of its problems?
This is my personal opinion. I see Umno as a party that is rotten to the core. Because for Umno, what is important to them are personal benefits and not the country. That is why I said that there is no use having a strong party but the country is destroyed. So I don't see how Umno can get out of this.
As a politician, I would like to focus on Pejuang as it is my party now. Just let the internal struggle within Umno go on and watch how it ends. I mentioned just now that it is hard to change Umno. That is because I have gone through an experience when I was censured harshly for going against the party.
The attacks on me were not about issues pertinent to the country which I brought up, but just because we disagreed with the party. They are more willing to see the country burn to the ground rather than their party. - Mkini
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