ANOTHER leaked audio clip of the Bersatu supreme council on Feb 23 has surfaced after a Facebook page aligned with former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad posted soundbites of the alleged meeting yesterday.
The clip contained the voice of a Bersatu spokesperson, purportedly Prime Minister and party president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, saying that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong was in favour of retaining Mahathir as prime minister in the event of a change of government.
He went on to discuss the scenarios for the realignment and argued that neither situation required the prime minister to resign.
“In our proposed exercise, it means the prime minister need not resign. This has been verified. I told the prime minister after consultation with a former CJ (chief justice), ‘No, we don’t have to resign,’” the Bersatu man said.
“So in Situation A now, Tun is the prime minister and even if we move to (scenario) B Tun also need not resign and remains the prime minister.
“(He is) reimposing position but moving from Pakatan Harapan (PH) to Perikatan Nasional (PN). Supposedly, that is. Perhaps it did not work out. That’s the situation,” he said.
The Bersatu man also purportedly claimed that the Agong had been informed of this plan on several occasions.
“The Agong’s sentiments, quote, unquote, he prefers this, what we are saying.
“He doesn’t get along (tak kena) with (PKR president) Anwar Ibrahim. He spoke frankly. Not that he wants to ‘sabotage’ him but he doesn’t like Anwar, if that is possible,” the voice said.
Mahathir had said that he had no choice but to resign as prime minister as he had lost the support of his party Bersatu because they were willing to accept Umno “en bloc.”
This the third leak from the same Bersatu supreme council meeting prior to the fall of the PH government in February.
The first leak was about a senior party leader telling the supreme council that the decision to abandon PH should be decided by Dr Mahathir as chairman and that he should be given a week to consider.
But the so-called “Sheraton Move” – to form PN – happened and Muhyiddin and his new allies formed the new government. PN is a loose pact consisting of Bersatu, Umno, PAS and Gabungan Parti Sarawak.
The second leak had the same speaker, purportedly Muhyiddin, saying rival MPs from Umno could be enticed into joining Bersatu with offers to make them federal ministers or as the heads of government-linked corporations.
Bersatu is now embroiled in a legal tussle between Mahathir and Muhyiddin. The party has revoked the membership of Mahathir and his allies for failing to back PN. Mahathir and the others plan to sue Bersatu over that. – June 11, 2020
