KUALA LUMPUR – Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) rebutted Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s statement who claimed that he would still be the Prime Minister (PM) if it wasn’t because of PKR’s President, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Its Secretary-General, Datuk Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said that the lack of support for Mahathir would not happen if the former Chairman of Pakatan Harapan (PH) held on to his promise of surrendering his position as the PM to Anwar.
“The agreement before GE14 was Tun would become the 7th PM, Anwar and PKR and PH had fulfilled that promise. PH won GE14 and Tun became the 7th PM.
“I personally represented PKR besides the leadership of DAP and Amanah who were involved knew that Tun agreed to be the interim PM. Tun did not agree with fixing the date to quit but he agreed to the two years period to avoid being seen like a lame duck Prime Minister. Clearly, Tun broke his promise,” he said in a statement today.
Saifuddin commented on the allegation by the Chairman of Parti Pejuang Tanahair (Pejuang) that he would still be the Prime Minister if Anwar did not announce that he got 92 votes from the Members of Parliament back then.
“I would still be the Prime Minister today. When I resign, Agong wanted each of the 220 Members of Parliament to write down who they choose. I thought that PH would put my name because I was from PH.
“However, Anwar said that he had a lot of support, but they (PH) gave Anwar 92 votes. I got 62, not from PH, but from other parties, I don’t know who they were.
“If I got 62, if I also got 92 from PH, I would have got 154, then, I would be the Prime Minister. But they made me lose, he lost too,” said Mahathir in a media interview.
Meanwhile, Saifuddin said, Mahathir did not lose his position because of Anwar, but he caused his own downfall.
According to him, he resigned as the PM without discussing with the leadership of PH.
“Tun lost the position due to his own mistakes. He would get more respect if he admits his mistakes.
“PKR and PH fulfilled the promise to make Tun Mahathir the 7th PM. Tun did not fulfil his promise of handing over the position to Anwar. PKR never promised to support Tun as the 8th PM.
“If Tun fulfilled his promise, Anwar would never have not enough of majority,” he added.
Commenting about the big camp under PH, Saifuddin said that PKR will remain with PH but they will not involve Pejuang in any discussion for the 15th General Election (GE15).
“Tun also paved his own path with Pejuang. PKR never discussed that the big camp idea would involve Tun. Our focus is to strengthen PKR and PH to face GE15,” he added. -MalaysiaGazette
