[ad_1]
PETALING JAYA: Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, as PPBM president, agreed with the party’s decision to leave Pakatan Harapan, but changed his position at the last minute, chief information officer Radzi Jidin said today.
He said that the decision to abandon the ruling coalition, formed after the 2018 general election, and form a new coalition with other parties, was known and supported by Mahathir.
Radzi dismissed a claim by Marzuki Yahya, who was appointed PPBM general secretary by Mahathir, that the decision to leave the coalition was never disputed. Radzi said the matter was, in fact, deliberate for months.
“It was only at the last minute, when the plan was supposed to be carried out, that Mahathir took a different position on the party,” he said in a statement earlier today. “The claim that the Supreme Council had never decided to leave PH is not true at all and is not supported by fact.”
Radzi said the party’s Supreme Council agreed to give Mahathir some time before announcing the agreed decision at a party meeting on February 23.
The following day, Mahathir resigned as Prime Minister and as Party Chairman; Party President Muhyiddin Yassin took over as interim president and announced PPBM’s departure from PH.
He also disputed Mahathir’s position as PPBM president, maintaining that Muhyiddin still held this position until a new president is chosen in the upcoming elections, according to the party’s constitution.
“At this time, a date for the PPBM elections has not yet been set,” he added due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Radzi said the Supreme Council did not have the power under the party constitution to reject Mahathir’s resignation.
He said that all party leaders and members are bound by the constitution, and that no one had absolute power in the party.
He urged PPBM members to preserve party unity and support Prime Minister Muhyiddin “to guide Malaysia out of the Covid-19 crisis and restore economic growth.”
Radzi also argued that Hamzah Zainuddin is the party’s current secretary general, not Marzuki, after the latter issued a statement using that designation. Marzuki issued a statement as the party’s secretary general and claimed that PPBM had made no official decision to leave the PH coalition during the February 23 Supreme Council meeting.
Marzuki was ousted by the party in March, and Hamzah was named in his place a week later.
False or not? Check out our fast fake news destroyer here.
