TUN Dr Mahathir Mohamad has indoctrinated UMNO party members to hate DAP, said UMNO president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, defending his party’s recent alliance with it.
“Dr Mahathir was the one who indoctrinated us for 22 years and portrayed a negative picture of the party,” the Free Malaysia Today (FMT) news portal reported him as saying in a talk last night.
Now that DAP and UMNO have joined forces to form a unity government, Zahid serves as Deputy Prime Minister.
Moreover, the Bagan Datuk MP who is also the Rural And Regional Development Minister pointed to the fact that Bersatu and PAS had previously joined forces with their political rival DAP. Bersatu was part of Pakatan Harapan (PH) while PAS was part of Pakatan Rakyat (PR).
Meanwhile, Dr Mahathir acknowledged in 2017 that he had demonised DAP when he was in UMNO.
The Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman further acknowledged that BN should be grateful to Prime Minister (PM) Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“BN should be grateful that it was given six ministerial posts in Anwar’s administration,” said Zahid
In the 15th General Election (GE15), BN only succeeded in winning 30 seats, while DAP – despite winning 40 seats – was only handed four ministerial positions.
Zahid went on to attribute as “divine intervention” BN’s inclusion in the unity government when it should have remained in the opposition based on its performance in the polls.
Among those who were made ministers from BN are Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, Foreign Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir, Law and Institutional Reform Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, Higher Education Minister Datuk Khaled Nordin, and International Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz. – Dec 28, 2022
