Umno ‘disease’ has spread to Pakatan, says PM

Updated 4 years ago · Published on 20 Jan 2020 12:47PM · 4 Comments

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad says reshuffling the cabinet based on his own wishes is not easy, as such changes require the approval of Pakatan parties. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Jahabar Sadiq, January 20, 2020.

THE “disease” of power afflicting Umno has spread to Pakatan Harapan, said Dr Mahathir Mohamad today.

The prime minister said this has led to him lacking confidence in the next generation of PH leaders.

“I am not too confident. Even in our own party, the disease that affected Umno has become the disease of many people.

“They see being in the winning party as great because you have power, you can get this and that,” he told reporters in Langkawi.

He added that some have threatened to pull support if they are required to be fair to all.

“We are telling them that even if they are from the winning party, the system has to be fair to everybody. But of course, they even threaten you that they will not support.”

Dr Mahathir, who is also chairman of both PH and its component, Bersatu, admitted that the pact will be a one-term government unless it changes its ways and stops its infighting.

He said it is not easy for him to reshuffle the cabinet according to his own wishes.

Changes to the line-up must get the support and approval of PH parties, he said.

“I can’t just drop people whenever they say ‘reshuffle, reshuffle’. If I want to drop anybody, I have to ask the party concerned. That party must nominate the replacement.

“I dropped Maszlee (Malik) because he is from my party. My party accepted it. The other parties, they didn’t want to accept it.

“I have to weigh this very carefully. I am not a free agent.”

Maszlee quit as education minister this month after making a series of unpopular decisions.

Dr Mahathir is acting education minister until a permanent appointment to the post is made. – January 20, 2020.

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Comments

  • You and your goons are the carriers!

    Posted 4 years ago by Watch Dog · Reply

  • TDM should then announce who are the under performing Cabinet Ministers and then these Ministers will be forced to resign, to be replaced by another nominee from that party. As it is TDM had not followed the nominations of the party from the onset in appointing Cabinet ministers because I know for a fact that Azmin and Zuraida was not nominated by PKR from the beginning. Now he says he is powerless to act. What an irony and probably hyposcrisy. TDM is the biggest cause of in-fighting in PH because of his divide-and-rule ways of managing the coalition

    Posted 4 years ago by Mike Mok · Reply

  • Fine, then replace your under performing Bersatu ministers as they are from your own party. Like you said its easier to drop them if its from your own party.

    Posted 4 years ago by Elyse Gim · Reply

  • "Umno disease has spread to Pakatan, says PM". NO, It didn't spread on its own, but was EMBRACED by Pakatan. Why cry over spilt milk? You thought some "experienced" Ex-UMNO ministers / leaders could help you and so you embraced them. But "harimau tak akan tukar belang-nya". They brought UMNO culture into PH. Now that you know, do something about it. It may not be easy, but you must do something about it. If you can't, you can still do something - step back, retire. Actions speak louder than words. The rakyat feel betrayed. E.g. when PH won and it was made known that Malaysia had a huge debut, RM1 trillion over, Malaysians came together to help PH by making donations to a special "tabung". Hardly two years have passed, that donation is being put to vulgar use by the proposal to buy fleets of luxury vehicles for the Ministers and top government officials. MANA MARUAH PH??? The announcement about the luxury cars was made without feeling an iota of shame. The "UMNO disease" has become even more serious under PH! While the country's debt is so huge; while the rakyat in earnest came forward to help the government with thier hard-earned money (even though the donations did not amount to even a few percent of the debt), they feel utterly betrayed by the proposal to spend that money to buy luxury vehicles, not one or two, but
    "32 Vellfires for ministers and high officials and at least 3,000 Accords for government officials". Where is the humility of being "wakil" of the rakyat?

    Posted 4 years ago by Ravinder Singh · Reply