PKR PRESIDENT Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim claimed that there are ongoing discussions between him and Perikatan Nasional (Perikatan) chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
However, Anwar stressed that it did not involve supporting Muhyiddin to become prime minister again.
“Meeting has been going on for a long time, I cannot deny that. But there is no question about this decision of (Pakatan) coalition to support him; it does not arise,” Malaysiakini reported him as saying.
On Thursday, Parti Pejuang Tanah Air chairperson Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad revealed that Muhyiddin has met him to secure support for the 15th General Election and urged the nonagenarian to support him in becoming Malaysia’s prime minister again.
However, Mahathir added that he had dismissed the Pagoh MP’s calls and referred to the latter as backstabber.
“I didn’t know what to say to him. I stepped down from the prime minister’s post because of what Muhyiddin did. He backstabbed me. The person he backstabbed isn’t even dead yet,” Mahathir was reported as saying.
It is to note that despite Mahathir’s repeated appeals to his then-party Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) not take the party out of the Pakatan coalition, Muhyiddin and his supporters went ahead and formed an alliance with UMNO and PAS via the Sheraton Move in February 2020.
While the newly minted Perikatan still lacked the majority to form a new Government, then-PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali led a team of 10 defectors from the party to provide a two-seat majority for the new coalition.
Subsequently, Muhyiddin purged the party of Mahathir and his supporters within Bersatu and solidified his grip.
However, Muhyiddin’s fortunes did not last long as within 17-months, 12 UMNO MPs withdrew support from him, allowing UMNO vice president Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to take over Putrajaya.
Asked on Muhyiddin’s meeting with Mahathir, Anwar refused to comment on the matter.
“It does not concern Pakatan. We are not involved,” the Port Dickson MP stated. – April 2, 2022
