Mahathir: PN still trying to get me on board, but I can't do it
INTERVIEW | There are ongoing attempts to bring Dr Mahathir Mohamad on board the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition, the former prime minister has revealed.
In a Malaysiakini interview yesterday, Mahathir said the efforts did not work as he cannot work with some "criminals" who support the government.
However, he indicated that it may be different if those individuals are out of PN.
"It was not only then (prior to the Sheraton Move), even now there are efforts to bring me in (into PN). But I cannot...
"I have made promises to the people. I promised the rakyat that we (Pakatan Harapan) wanted to bring down Najib. So, I cannot work with Najib.
"The (ruling) party today would collapse without the support from Najib and several others in what we call the 'court cluster'. The so-called Malay Muslim government is dependent on the non-Malays, and secondly, dependent upon criminals.
"I cannot be associated with that," he said.
Mahathir was referring to former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and several other Umno leaders, including its president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who are facing criminal charges in court.
Najib was convicted by the High Court in Kuala Lumpur on seven criminal charges last year and is now appealing his conviction in the Court of Appeal, while the others are still at various stages of their trials.
The Harapan government collapsed in February 2020, after only 22 months in power, following a political coup dubbed the Sheraton Move engineered by a group of MPs including from Bersatu, in which Mahathir was the chairperson.
Mahathir had since been sacked from the party for going against Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin, who emerged as the country's eighth prime minister after the coup.
From the collapse of the Harapan government, Mahathir had always maintained that he was against the plan to work with "kleptocrats", referring to the Umno leaders who are facing criminal cases in court.
"Since the beginning, I was the candidate (to be PM for the new government after Harapan). That was how (Bersatu MP) Hamzah Zainudin could get statutory declarations from Hadi (PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang), Najib and the others.
"All of them gave their support to me, so that when he (Hamzah) leaves and I also leave (Harapan), I would be the prime minister for the party that I had fought against. But I did not want this.
"So, when Muhyiddin knew I did not want (to be part of the plan), he volunteered himself. So he became the prime minister," Mahathir said.
As the nonagenarian stressed that he was not willing to work with a certain group of Umno leaders, Malaysiakini asked him whether he would consider working with PN should those individuals no longer be in the coalition.
This is in the context of recent political realignments, which saw the Umno general assembly decide that the party would discontinue its cooperation with Bersatu, and therefore with PN as well.
Umno was also said to be in talks with PKR, which is led by opposition chief Anwar Ibrahim. However, Zahid denied this, contrary to Anwar's previous claims of ongoing initial-stage talks.
"Yes, if they are no longer there," Mahathir said.
The former Umno president added: "Umno people can join Bersatu. There is no need for Umno, anymore, because Umno's name has been tainted.
"Najib is the killer of Umno. Najib destroyed Umno.
"His father built Umno, and he destroyed it. He has no shame at all for destroying his father's heritage." - FMT
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