Mahathir fires another salvo at his former party
KUALA LUMPUR: Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad went on yet another offensive against the leaders of the party he founded and was subsequently sacked from.
Writing in his blog Chedet, he asked if the leaders of the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) were willing to accept alleged "thieves" among political leaders as their partners for the sake of forming the new government under the Perikatan Nasional coalition.
While he did not name those who he was labelling as "thieves", he alluded to the previous Najib administration under the Barisan Nasional coalition that PPBM had in the past sought to remove from power, the Malay Mail reported.
Leaders of his former party, Dr Mahathir alleged, had forgotten their promise to the people to fight corruption.
He also predicted that the party will most likely collapse after the current leadership resorted to working with political parties rejected by the people in the 14th General Election by forming the present federal government, The New Straits Times reported.
In a separate development, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the party had wanted Dr Mahathir to remain as prime minister under a new coalition and not Pakatan Harapan during the political crisis in February, The Star reported.
Dr Mahathir had quit as prime minister during the crisis as he was against PPBM's decision to withdraw from the Pakatan Harapan coalition and form a new government under the new Perikatan Nasional coalition.
Mr Ahmad Zahid took to Facebook to explain the context of the viral picture that showed Dr Mahathir seated with Perikatan Nasional leaders in a meeting which allegedly took place on Feb 23.
"The picture that is going viral showed a meeting between the respective party presidents to propose that Dr Mahathir set up a government without DAP, PKR and Parti Amanah Negara.
"However, we withdrew our support when Dr Mahathir later suggested for the formation of a unity government comprising all parties, which went against our earlier agreement," he said in his post.
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