MUKHRIZ Mahathir believes that if his father, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, wanted him to become prime minister, he would have been in the upper echelons of the government a long time ago.

Addressing the constant criticism that father and son were attacking Umno now because he could not become prime minister, Mukhriz, who is Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia deputy president, pointed out he made his political debut in 2004, one full year after Dr Mahathir resigned from office.

“If he had such ambitions for me, you would have thought he would have brought me into the upper echelon of government while he was PM for 22 long years,” Mukhriz told The Malaysian Insight.

“Not only didn’t he do this, he prohibited me and my siblings from assuming any government post, and denied our right to even contest in party elections while he was PM and Umno president.”

Dr Mahathir resigned from his post as prime minister and Umno president in late November 2003 at the party’s assembly that year.

After being elected as an Umno Youth executive council member in 2004, Mukhriz made his way up in Umno. In 2009, he was appointed a deputy minister in Najib Razak’s administration.

In 2013, Mukhriz contested a Kedah legislative seat and led the charge to wrest back the state from the opposition Pakatan Rakyat. He was then appointed Kedah menteri besar.

Father and son left Umno in early 2016 over what they claimed was the party president’s involvement in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal.

Umno leaders claimed that Dr Mahathir and Mukhriz were disgruntled over the fact that the latter was not made a federal minister, thus making it harder for him to become the prime minister.

“If I had ambitions to become PM, why would I specifically request to stand for a Kedah state seat instead of Parliament at GE13?

“This also makes absurd the notion that my father Tun Mahathir Mohamad withdrew his support for Najib because I wasn’t made a minister or was not in line for prime ministership.‎”

Below are excerpts of the interview:

Q: First off, can you talk about how you felt when you were removed as Kedah menteri besar (in January 2016)? Especially after you had delivered Kedah back to BN in 2013?

Mukhriz: Going by the audacious move by Ahmad Bashah and Kedah Umno in declaring a vote of no-confidence against me as the MB and Kedah Umno chief, the tell-tale signs of consent, perhaps even orders from Najib Razak himself, in wanting me removed were obvious.

Always preferring to avoid blame, Najib would not do the deed himself, without first making it seem like a demand from others. Because of me being increasingly public in my criticism against him, the writing on the wall was that I wasn’t going to last a full term as MB.

And this was despite the promise made by BN to the rakyat at the end of the GE13 campaign period that I was to be appointed MB if the rakyat returned BN as the ruling party in Kedah. 

I felt Najib’s action was a clear betrayal of that promise to the rakyat. Hence, I felt no injury to my personal self. Instead I knew this would be an affront to the trust the people gave to BN that enabled the coalition to wrest Kedah back from PAS and Pakatan Rakyat.

Q: You’ve been an Umno leader, a deputy minister and a menteri besar. How does it feel now to be on the outside, fighting Umno?

Mukhriz: At first I thought it was as if I’ve become an apostate! A betrayer of the cause. But it immediately dawned on me that it was Umno leaders themselves who were betraying the cause.

Self-interest superseded national interests. Corruption became de rigueur as power begets wealth and wealth buys more power. Power is then abused to cover up wrongdoings. 

As I found myself caught up in this quagmire, I tried to voice my criticism internally. But my attempts to contest for positions within the party were foiled by money politics. 

Realising that Umno was damaged beyond repair, the idea of forming a new Malay party appealed to me and many others from Umno. Having seen how impossible it was to fix Umno, the opportunity to start from a clean slate was the only solution to the problem. 

Thus, having seen the overwhelming support PPBM (Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia) gets from the general public, particularly the Malays, I’m convinced we made the right choice.

Q: Observers saw you as a future Umno prime minister and if you had stayed, you would have gotten there eventually. Among the next generation of PM candidates, it was you or Khairy Jamaluddin. In fact, Najib trusted you. He made you a menteri besar and you recaptured Kedah for Umno. How did you decide to give it all up to become a member of the opposition? What was the breaking point? That made you give it all up?

Mukhriz: I truly believe Umno and BN will be defeated in the next general election. Hence Najib will be the last prime minister from Umno, unless of course he steps down before GE14 and someone else from Umno leads the party into the elections. That person, whether Hisham (Hishammuddin Hussein) or Zahid (Ahmad Zahid Hamidi), will then be the last Umno PM. 

My sole ambition from when I was still with Umno and now with PPBM and Pakatan Harapan is to make a difference for Malaysia and its people. Whether I achieve that in the capacity of a government official or otherwise isn’t and will never be a real concern for me.

If I had ambitions to become PM, why would I specifically request to stand for a Kedah state seat instead of Parliament at GE13?

This also makes absurd the notion that my father Tun Mahathir Mohamad withdrew his support for Najib because I wasn’t made a minister or was not in line for prime ministership. 

As MB of Kedah, I realised that the balancing act between state and federal interests was difficult to defend when the latter wasn’t giving enough attention to Kedah.

By early 2015, I had informed my state exco and top state civil servants that when we are to make a choice between the interests of the state versus that of the federal, we would be duty bound to always put the interest of the former first.

One can imagine how difficult this was since both governments were BN, and it was the PM who had appointed me as MB. Nevertheless, I felt strongly about this and was determined to fight for Kedah. 

To show our resolve, after tabling Kedah’s 2016 budget at the state assembly in November 2015, I shocked everyone, not least my former colleagues from among BN assemblymen, by officially requesting the federal government to reduce (the) GST to 3% from 6%.

I knew Kedahans were hurting due to the rise in the cost of living after the GST came into effect. I felt compelled as the MB to speak on the people’s behalf. Going by the lack of support from BN assemblymen, I knew my time was up. Sure enough, within three months, I was forced to resign. 

But because I knew I did the right thing, having to step down from the highest office in the sate was no loss to me. What was important was knowing that the rakyat understood the real circumstances behind my resignation, and still support me today.

Q: It seemed coincidental that you started criticising Najib at the same time Dr Mahathir did. Would you have done so if Tun did not? Would you have left Umno and fight Najib and Umno, if Tun did not?

Mukhriz: I must admit to not having a good understanding of the issues surrounding 1MDB in the early stages. But after checking from my own sources about what Tun Mahathir was harping on, it dawned on me that he was totally justified in his condemnation of Najib. 

When we were both critical of Tun Abdullah Badawi when he was prime minister, I stayed on as an Umno member while my father left. But Pak Lah’s incompetence pales in comparison to the abuse of power perpetrated by Najib.

Under no circumstance would Tun Mahathir have stayed in Umno while Najib continued with his shenanigans. I felt the same and started pushing the envelope in my criticism of Najib when I officiated several Umno division AGMs. By then, I was prepared for whatever consequences of my actions, including being forced to resign as MB and being expelled from the party.

Q: How do you respond to your detractors who keep saying that you’re doing this because Dr Mahathir wants to make you prime minister?

Mukhriz: If he had such ambitions for me, you would have thought he would have brought me into the upper echelon of government while he was PM for 22 long years. Not only didn’t he do this, he prohibited me and my siblings from assuming any government post, and denied our right to even contest in party elections while he was PM and Umno president.

I only won as the highest voted Umno Youth exco member in 2004, a full year after my father retired. 

Anyone who still makes such baseless allegations is merely trying to make trivial of Tun Mahathir’s efforts to save the nation. Never has Tun acted in the interest of his family over that of the country. And he is not about to start now. – April 25, 2017.