BERSATU is still part of Pakatan Harapan until otherwise decided by the party’s supreme council, said party chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“The Bersatu supreme council never decided to leave PH.

“As revealed in the audio recordings, (president) Muhyiddin Yassin gave me a week to decide, but before the week was up, he took the party out of the coalition,” said Dr Mahathir at a press conference at the Perdana Leadership Foundation in Putrajaya today.

“This is against the party constitution as he decided to take Bersatu out without the supreme council’s approval.

“He has also decided that Bersatu will be a Perikatan Nasional party without the consulting the supreme council,” said Dr Mahathir.

The audio recording to which Dr Mahathir referred is a clip leaked on Facebook in which a voice resembling that of Muhyiddin is heard telling Bersatu supreme council members that Dr Mahathir is given the full mandate to decide whether the party should leave PH, to which council members agree.

The meeting was held on February 23, and despite deferring the decision to Dr Mahathir, Muhyiddin and Bersatu MPs went to the Sheraton Hotel that night as part of the plot with Umno, PAS and a few PKR leaders to form a new Malay-majority coalition.

Dubbed the “Sheraton Move”, it was followed by a week of political turmoil that saw Dr Mahathir resign as Bersatu chairman and as prime minister.

Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah appointed Dr Mahathir in the interim, while ascertaining who MPs would support as prime minister.

Muhyiddin was sworn in as prime minister on March 1 after the Agong said he was satisfied from his meeting with political party heads that the Bersatu president had the majority support. – May 18, 2020.