Kailash Kumar
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Mahathir launches new party as Malaysia’s power struggle intensifies
The new party, yet to be named, will not be aligned to the country’s major alliances and will contest snap polls expected in month
Party’s formation follows a court’s dismissal of a law suit by Mahathir and four allies over their sacking from the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia
Bhavan Jaipragas
7 Aug, 2020
The Malaysian elder statesman Mahathir Mohamad on Friday took another throw of the dice in the country’s relentless power struggle as he launched a new political party to contest elections against rivals who seized power from him in March.
Mahathir, who has felled three prime ministers in seven decades and occupied the hot seat twice himself, said in a press conference the new Malay-centric party would not align itself with either of the country’s major political blocs – Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s Perikatan Nasional or the opposition Pakatan Harapan alliance.
The party has yet to be registered and has also not been given an official name. Mahathir said for now the party would be referred to as Bebas (independent).
The 95-year-old politician said he was forming the new party as other Malay-centric parties, including the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) he co-founded in 2016, had strayed from their original objectives of championing the interests of the majority Malay population.
“Our objective remains to eradicate kleptocracy and corruption,” Mahathir said. “We find that the Malay parties ... in the past always won two-thirds majority [in parliament]. But now under this new leadership, they are more interested in using their authority to take money for themselves,” he said.
While the party will predominantly concern itself with Malay issues, it will also champion the interests of the country’s minority groups, Mahathir said. “We are very aware that we are a multiracial country,” he said.
“This party will be inclusive and moderate and will demonstrate to the other ethnic groups that the Malays are not treasonous, that we keep our promises, and that we will not turn away sincere and principled cooperation,” he said.
The new party’s formation follows a court’s decision on Friday to dismiss a law suit by Mahathir and five allies over their sacking from PPBM, which is currently led by Muhyiddin.
Two of the five MPs, Mahathir’s son Mukhriz Mahathir and former PPBM secretary-general Marzuki Yahya, flanked the former prime minister during the press conference. In the interim period, Mahathir will serve as chairman of the new party and Mukhriz – the former chief minister of the state of Kedah –will be its president.
The six politicians were removed from the party in May, after months of internal wrangling following the decision by Muhyiddin – the party’s president – to pull PPBM out of the Pakatan Harapan alliance that governed the country.
Mahathir resigned as prime minister following that move, and Muhyiddin subsequently gained power by joining hands with the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) – the country’s formidable Malay nationalist group that was toppled in the 2018 polls after six decades of rule.
Muhyiddin, an ardent Malay nationalist, staged the political coup to remake the administration without the Chinese-centric Democratic Action Party (DAP) and to sideline Anwar Ibrahim, the standard bearer of multiracial politics who had been earmarked as Mahathir’s successor.
Observers believe the 73-year-old prime minister is currently considering a snap poll that could take place as early as September to shore up his government’s razor-thin parliamentary majority.
Muhyiddin and Mahathir formed the PPBM in 2016 in a bid to win support from the country’s majority Malays, who for decades had overwhelmingly backed Umno – the party that has its roots in the country’s independence movement.
Mahathir – prime minister and Umno’s leader from 1981 to 2003 – paired with Muhyiddin after their disenchantment with the ex-prime minister Najib Razak’s scandal-tainted administration.
The new party’s formation adds a fresh layer of intrigue to the country’s political drama that is often compared with the internecine struggles in the television show Game of Thrones.
Apart from the prospect of snap polls, Malaysians have also been digesting the various legal woes of their politicians. Last week, Najib – implicated in the multibillion-dollar 1MDB
financial scandal – was convicted of seven charges linked to the case and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
He is out on bail pending appeal, and is facing four other trials spanning 35 more charges.
In the Pakatan Harapan camp, Mahathir’s key ally Lim Guan Eng – who was finance minister before the March coup – was on Friday charged with corruption in a case linked to a China-linked undersea tunnel project.
Investigations into the US$1.5 billion project that involves China Railway Construction Corp were discontinued following the 2018 polls but were reopened following Muhyiddin’s unexpected ascent to power.
https://www.scmp.com/print/week-asi...ew-party-malaysias-power-struggle-intensifies
The new party, yet to be named, will not be aligned to the country’s major alliances and will contest snap polls expected in month
Party’s formation follows a court’s dismissal of a law suit by Mahathir and four allies over their sacking from the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia
Bhavan Jaipragas
7 Aug, 2020
The Malaysian elder statesman Mahathir Mohamad on Friday took another throw of the dice in the country’s relentless power struggle as he launched a new political party to contest elections against rivals who seized power from him in March.
Mahathir, who has felled three prime ministers in seven decades and occupied the hot seat twice himself, said in a press conference the new Malay-centric party would not align itself with either of the country’s major political blocs – Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s Perikatan Nasional or the opposition Pakatan Harapan alliance.
The party has yet to be registered and has also not been given an official name. Mahathir said for now the party would be referred to as Bebas (independent).
The 95-year-old politician said he was forming the new party as other Malay-centric parties, including the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) he co-founded in 2016, had strayed from their original objectives of championing the interests of the majority Malay population.
“Our objective remains to eradicate kleptocracy and corruption,” Mahathir said. “We find that the Malay parties ... in the past always won two-thirds majority [in parliament]. But now under this new leadership, they are more interested in using their authority to take money for themselves,” he said.
While the party will predominantly concern itself with Malay issues, it will also champion the interests of the country’s minority groups, Mahathir said. “We are very aware that we are a multiracial country,” he said.
“This party will be inclusive and moderate and will demonstrate to the other ethnic groups that the Malays are not treasonous, that we keep our promises, and that we will not turn away sincere and principled cooperation,” he said.
The new party’s formation follows a court’s decision on Friday to dismiss a law suit by Mahathir and five allies over their sacking from PPBM, which is currently led by Muhyiddin.
Two of the five MPs, Mahathir’s son Mukhriz Mahathir and former PPBM secretary-general Marzuki Yahya, flanked the former prime minister during the press conference. In the interim period, Mahathir will serve as chairman of the new party and Mukhriz – the former chief minister of the state of Kedah –will be its president.
The six politicians were removed from the party in May, after months of internal wrangling following the decision by Muhyiddin – the party’s president – to pull PPBM out of the Pakatan Harapan alliance that governed the country.
Mahathir resigned as prime minister following that move, and Muhyiddin subsequently gained power by joining hands with the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) – the country’s formidable Malay nationalist group that was toppled in the 2018 polls after six decades of rule.
Muhyiddin, an ardent Malay nationalist, staged the political coup to remake the administration without the Chinese-centric Democratic Action Party (DAP) and to sideline Anwar Ibrahim, the standard bearer of multiracial politics who had been earmarked as Mahathir’s successor.
Observers believe the 73-year-old prime minister is currently considering a snap poll that could take place as early as September to shore up his government’s razor-thin parliamentary majority.
Muhyiddin and Mahathir formed the PPBM in 2016 in a bid to win support from the country’s majority Malays, who for decades had overwhelmingly backed Umno – the party that has its roots in the country’s independence movement.
Mahathir – prime minister and Umno’s leader from 1981 to 2003 – paired with Muhyiddin after their disenchantment with the ex-prime minister Najib Razak’s scandal-tainted administration.
The new party’s formation adds a fresh layer of intrigue to the country’s political drama that is often compared with the internecine struggles in the television show Game of Thrones.
Apart from the prospect of snap polls, Malaysians have also been digesting the various legal woes of their politicians. Last week, Najib – implicated in the multibillion-dollar 1MDB
financial scandal – was convicted of seven charges linked to the case and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
He is out on bail pending appeal, and is facing four other trials spanning 35 more charges.
In the Pakatan Harapan camp, Mahathir’s key ally Lim Guan Eng – who was finance minister before the March coup – was on Friday charged with corruption in a case linked to a China-linked undersea tunnel project.
Investigations into the US$1.5 billion project that involves China Railway Construction Corp were discontinued following the 2018 polls but were reopened following Muhyiddin’s unexpected ascent to power.
https://www.scmp.com/print/week-asi...ew-party-malaysias-power-struggle-intensifies
