Dr Mahathir says Pejuang will not support Muhyiddin to be PM
Advertisement
LIKENING Muhyiddin Yassin to Najib Razak, Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Pejuang will not support the Bersatu president to be prime minister again.
“When he was prime minister, many were not satisfied with his leadership. He (Muhyiddin) was not a good PM and there is no reason for people to pick him again.
“If he has achieved anything for Malaysia, he will win, even without my support,” Dr Mahathir told a press conference at Yayasan Al-Bukhary in Kuala Lumpur today.
When pressed on the matter, Dr Mahathir added: “Pejuang is not thinking of that. We are not going to support someone to be PM who was as much of a failure as Najib was.
When asked again if he has ruled out all cooperation with Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Muhyiddin, Dr Mahathir said: “We will only work with those who are against corruption.
“And they must make a declaration that they don’t approve of corruption and will not contest by giving money to voters.”
Dr Mahathir was commenting on news reports that Muhyiddin had sought his help in the next general election.
But the 96-year-old has ruled it out as he could not fathom supporting someone who had stabbed him in the back.
Muhyiddin, who founded Bersatu with Dr Mahathir in 2016, had replaced the latter as prime minister after he caused the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government in 2020.
Through the “Sheraton move”, Muhyiddin pulled 10 PKR lawmakers out of the PH coalition and took Bersatu out, causing the government to fall.
Muhyiddin then sacked Dr Mahathir and four other Bersatu MPs for refusing to endorse him as prime minister.
The Bersatu president then cobbled together the PN government with Islamist party PAS, Gabungan Parti Sarawak and Barisan Nasional.
In danger of losing a possible confidence vote in Parliament, Muhyiddin resigned as prime minister on August 16 last year after 15 Umno MPs withdrew their support from him.
During his 17 months in office, Muhyiddin presided over three of the longest lockdowns brought about by the Covid-19 epidemic and instituted a heavily criticised state of emergency that prevented Parliament from meeting. – April 1, 2022.