PAS initiated calls for a vote of confidence for then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad on purpose to create suspicion among Pakatan Harapan parties, said Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan.

“PAS initiated the plan to table a vote of confidence to create distrust in PH, to make them feel uneasy, and it was an accident waiting to happen,” Mohamad said in a speech recorded on video, referring to the collapse of the PH government last week.

He said this was the main reason behind the collapse of the government elected in 2018.

“Because of the motion for a vote of confidence, they (PH parties) began to distrust each other,” Mohamad said in the video posted on Umno Online’s Facebook page. 

He was speaking at an Umno event in Pagoh, Johor, the federal constituency of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who was sworn in on March 1.

The PH government was toppled after plotting by Muhyiddin’s faction in Bersatu, ex-PKR deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali, Umno and PAS late last month.

Prior to that, in early February, PAS had announced plans to table a motion of confidence for Dr Mahathir at the next Dewan Rakyat sitting in March.

Despite being an opposition party, PAS had said it wanted to do so to stop the bickering over when Dr Mahathir was to transfer power to PKR president Anwar Ibrahim.

PAS had said the constant fighting over the transition plan was destabilising to the economy and country, and a motion of confidence would help show that Dr Mahathir had the support to continue leading the country.

In his speech, Mohamad said “there is no opposition party that wants a vote of confidence (for the prime minister)”.

But PH fell for the trap amid fighting between those who supported an earlier transition to Anwar and those who wanted Dr Mahathir to stay for a full term.

A PH presidential council meeting on February 21 had ignited the week of political manoeuvring that led to Dr Mahathir’s resignation and the fall of the PH government.

At the meeting, it was agreed by all PH parties and their leaders that Dr Mahathir would set the transition date on his own, after Malaysia hosted the Apec summit in November.

However, plotting continued behind closed doors between Azmin, Umno, PAS and Muhyiddin, with some alleging that the scheming was initially aimed at stopping Anwar from taking over.

By mid-week, Umno and PAS seized their chance and their MPs to tell the Yang di-Pertuan Agong that they wanted snap elections instead of supporting Dr Mahathir as prime minister.

While MPs from the remaining PH parties and Sabah’s Warisan supported Dr Mahathir as prime minister, Umno, PAS, Bersatu and Gabungan Parti Sarawak MPs supported Muhyiddin.

Muhyiddin was deemed by the Agong has having the confidence of the majority of MPs and named as prime minster, while Dr Mahathir called his former home minister a traitor.

On Dr Mahathir’s claim that Umno and PAS collaborated with Muhyiddin, Mohamad said that Umno played no part in any betrayal.

“We did not betray anyone and we did not cause the coup, but as an opposition, we did what we needed to do.

“If we had allowed PH to stay in power for three more years, it would have been the end of us, the Malays, and Islam in this country.” 

Mohamad told Umno members that despite having PAS by its side, Umno must prioritise its own interests before any other parties’.

“It is true that we have Muafakat Nasional but that is not a guarantee. We work with our friends but our party is our party. We must work hard for Umno, keep our secrets to ourselves, even in Perikatan Nasional. We must not share our secrets,” he said.

The Muafakat Nasional pact was signed between Umno and arch-rival PAS on September 14 as a platform for the two opposition parties to collaborate following BN’s loss of federal power in the 14th general election. – March 7, 2020.