Mahathir continues encouraging others to follow his footsteps to party-hop, but this time, with a condition

While busy engaging with the youths via the Digital Parlimen platform, Tun Mahathir reiterated the statement he made in October last year on party-hopping by saying that the practice is acceptable whenever a member is dissatisfied with the party. Historically, that has been his practice each time things did not go his way in UMNO. However, this time, Tun Mahathir noted that such act involving the whole party members displaying mutiny to bring down the government is intolerable, by implying on the one done by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s camp that happened in Bersatu against him leading to the establishment of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government today. Perhaps being the repetitive, longest-serving prime minister of Malaysia, Tun Mahathir has the ‘license’ to make such statements, yet it reflects on the issue of loyalty to the party that he has not been able to portray to the younger voters.

The conundrum of whose fault it was that led to the government ‘takeover’ in February 2020 is still left unsolved. In defense, Tun Mahathir revealed that due to his disagreement with the idea of collaborating with the kleptocratic UMNO leaders, he resigned. On the contrary, Bersatu supreme council member Wan Saiful Wan Jan revealed Tun Mahathir’s involvement and knowledge of the plan to have a Malay-led government to replace Pakatan Harapan (PH) that somewhat backfired the latter with numerous leaked audios and images in the media. Concerned Malaysians have felt cheated by Tun Mahathir and were let down by him due to his resignation, plus shocked for knowing that he had his ‘share’ of the government change. As a result, Tun Mahathir was sacked from his ‘baby’ party, Bersatu, and that is truly a huge slap on his face.

During the first few days of the Parliament sitting beginning 13 July 2020, Tun Mahathir has been teased and mocked for his actions in February during the debate on the Royal Address. What more could he do than to act cool against the allegations made by UMNO members of Parliament from Baling, Kinabatangan, Arau and Pasir Salak. Adding salt to the pain, Pekan MP Dato’ Seri Najib Razak, recently posted a video on his social media account alleging ‘similar injustice’ that happened in the Parliament on the appointment of former Speaker Tan Sri Dato’ Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof when PH became the government in 2018. Najib Razak has been daring enough to counter most of Tun Mahathir’s allegations on him, UMNO and Barisan Nasional (BN) by highlighting Tun Mahathir’s ‘wrongdoings’ in the past, yet nothing has been taken seriously under the law.

With the anti-hopping law still being mooted by some state governments and still being studied by Putrajaya, no one is able to axe Tun Mahathir’s nod to party-hopping for now. Nevertheless, with his close engagements with the youth leaders of the virtual Digital Parliament in getting the support of the young voters, will this be a good example for them to emulate?  

By Adillah Jaafar

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