DR Mahathir Mohamad has dismissed the notion that the DAP will claim the prime minister’s job if Pakatan Harapan wins the next general election in the face of such allegations by Umno and PAS. 

Dr Mahathir, who is PH chairman, said in his latest chedet blog posting that such talk was a ploy to frighten the Malays.

DAP will not claim the prime minister’s position, he said, as PH does not belong to DAP.

“Such talk was only meant to frighten Umno and the Malays because Prime Minister Najib Razak believed that kind of story will work,” said Dr Mahathir who is PH chairman.

“The majority of the elected representatives, if PH wins, will be Malay, and many of them will be interested in becoming prime minister. They will never let DAP decide the selection of prime minister. 

“DAP itself and Kit Siang had said the party would not claim the position. DAP cannot even have more than 50 MPs in the Dewan Rakyat, and with its present 35, not all are Chinese,” he wrote in his blog Chedet.

Dr Mahathir also pointed out that DAP was not a Chinese party as portrayed by its detractors, as its membership was open to all races and they used the national language in their meetings, unlike Barisan Nasional component party MCA that was all-Chinese.

“But look carefully at Najib’s policies. He believes the Malays can be easily frightened with tales of Kit Siang becoming prime minister. Najib thinks the Malays are easy to bribe with money, and hopes the stolen 1MDB money could buy the Malays,” he said.

Dr Mahathir, who chairs the opposition party Bersatu, said Malays would suffer (in the long run) because of Najib’s policies that were only aimed at preserving his position as prime minister.

The 92-year-old leader said those who believed DAP would rule Malaysia if Umno lost to PH blamed and accused him of betraying them by working with Lim and DAP, which was regarded as anti-Malay.

“I was the one who demonised DAP, although they did the same to me. In politics, we have to make the enemy look bad to win. DAP was my enemy and my party’s enemy then. 

“The approach worked so well because the Malays found DAP and all those with the party unacceptable.

“But today, I myself am working with DAP. So, to Umno, I have betrayed them. But I would not have done so if DAP was truly the devil,” he said.

Dr Mahathir started working with DAP last year after Lim supported the former’s Deklarasi Rakyat to remove the Najib-led BN government.

He said despite their history, they both agreed that removing Najib was more important.

The former prime minister said after having DAP as a partner in PH, he found DAP “not as bad as I had once made it out to be”.

Dr Mahathir said many Malay leaders had cooperated and worked with DAP before him, such as the first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, and PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim.

“PAS leader Abdul Hadi Awang used to hug Kit Siang. PAS was in Barisan Alternatif and Pakatan Rakyat in the 12th and 13th general elections. PAS won big due to Chinese DAP support.”

Dr Mahathir said in multiracial Malaysia, no single party or race could win an election to form the government; only a coalition would have the power to do so.

He said even Umno today, which has 88 MPs, needed the 13 other parties in BN to form the federal government

“It is the same with parties that oppose BN. Malays have been split to several parties – Umno, PKR, Amanah, Bersatu and PAS. When polling day comes, Chinese votes will help determine whether Umno wins or loses. The same goes for the other Malay-majority parties.

“Realising this, the opposition needs Chinese voter support. That is why PH has DAP, which also realises that it needs Malay voters to beat MCA and Gerakan,” he said. – October 6, 2017.