THE Pakatan Harapan government has taken note of criticisms against it and will work towards addressing them, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The PH chairman did not say what the shortcomings were, but said those who know what needs to be done are the ministers and PH component party leaders.

“We have had a briefing on the post mortem for the Tanjung Piai by-election, and we take note of the criticisms, but we cannot reveal to the press what are the criticism and what needs to be done with regards to the mistakes done. We will take action to rectify them. 

“We have heard about a cabinet reshuffle and other action to be taken. We will pay attention to all of this and take the relevant action,” he said today after chairing the PH presidential council meeting in Putrajaya. 

The meeting was on PH’s disastrous showing in last Saturday’s Tanjung Piai by-election, where the ruling coalition lost by 15,000 votes to Barisan Nasional. 

Dr Mahathir dismissed the notion that a rift between PH leaders contributed to the government’s problems.

He said PH leaders have been told to have a frank discussion, without hurling allegations or unpleasantries against each another.

Dr Mahathir said PH leaders are united, but there may be dissatisfaction on the grassroots level, partly because of the lack of full knowledge of what is happening. 

“We practise freedom of speech, so we can’t shut them up. What we can do is brief them about the situation. If they have problems they can air their views to their respective (party) committee and the PH presidential council,” he said. 

He acknowledged that Malays have this idea that PH is being controlled by DAP, while the Chinese are of the impression that  DAP is being controlled by Dr Mahathir. 

On that note, he said it is difficult to please everyone. 

“We cannot satisfy everybody, but the situation now is that there are people who are not satisfied because we are being fair to both sides… both sides are not happy,” he added. – November 23, 2019.