BERSATU secretary-general Hamzah Zainudin has blamed Dr Mahathir Mohamad as the cause of the party’s split on whether to leave Pakatan Harapan.

Hamzah said the former prime minister’s orders to him when he joined Bersatu in February last year was to look for ways to strengthen the party and the rule of Malay leaders.

He also recalled a conversation at Dr Mahathir’s house where he, together with Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin, deputy president Mukhriz Mahathir, then Perak menteri besar Ahmad Faizal Azumu and Mersing MP Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad, where the nonagenarian leader asked for ways Bersatu could leave PH.

“(The discussion) at his home was to find ways Bersatu could leave PH. I said, OK, let’s do this together, and the rest is history.

“So when Dr Mahathir resigned (as Bersatu chairman and as prime minister), Muhyiddin and I were shocked,” Hamzah said at a press conference at the Bersatu headquarters today.

His press conference follows the party’s termination of Dr Mahathir’s membership and of four other MPs – Mukhriz, who is Jerlun MP, youth chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman (Muar), supreme council member Dr Maszlee Malik (Simpang Renggam) and Amiruddin Hamzah (Kubang Pasu). 

The termination of their memberships is for choosing to sit with the opposition at the May 18 Parliament sitting.

Dr Mahathir has struck back, questioning his termination in a letter to the Registrar of Societies, and also disputing the authority of organising secretary Muhammad Suhaimi Yahya who issued the termination letters. 

He said he is also planning to sack Muhyiddin but intends to go through proper channels.

Dr Mahathir’s faction, which recognises Hamzah’s predecessor Marzuki Yahya as the legitimate party secretary-general, has also removed Suhaimi from the post of organising secretary and replaced him with Sazmi Miah.

Hamzah, who is Larut MP and now Home Minister, was among seven Umno politicians who joined Bersatu in February last year.

“The reason Dr Mahathir invited me to join Bersatu was to strengthen the party, to which I agreed.

“In the discussions we had from time to time, he asked me not just to strengthen Bersatu and Malay leadership, but also to erode the people’s confidence towards DAP.

“I did it. What I did was what he asked me to do,” Hamzah said.

Hamzah also said he was behind the Malay Dignity Congress in October last year, which Dr Mahathir controversially attended to give the keynote address.

“The work I did was as instructed by the then prime minister (Dr Mahathir). Everything I did, such as the Malay Dignity Congress, was on a large scale.

“I could not have done it if it was not ordered by the prime minister.”

Hamzah said he shouldn’t be blamed for splitting Bersatu as all instructions came from Dr Mahathir.

“What I did may have caused a split, but I was doing what Dr Mahathir wanted,” he said.

Dr Mahathir is Bersatu’s founder and chairman. He resigned as chairman and as prime minister on February 24, after disagreeing with Muhyiddin’s move to take Bersatu out of PH and align with Barisan Nasional, PAS, Gabungan Parti Sarawak and PKR defectors in a new Malay-majority coalition.

It led to the PH federal government’s collapse and Muhyiddin becoming prime minister. 

Muhyiddin’s faction has been claiming it was Dr Mahathir’s decision for Bersatu to quit PH, which the former prime minister has repeatedly denied. 

Leaked excerpts of audio recordings from Bersatu’s supreme council meeting on February 23 have also been released in recent weeks, trying to paint either a picture of how Muhyiddin had left the decision to Dr Mahathir and betrayed him subsequently, or to show that the decision to leave PH had Dr Mahathir’s approval.

The Langkawi MP’s resignation as party chairman on February 24 was rejected by then secretary-general Marzuki, who is aligned to him.

However, Muhyiddin went ahead to appoint himself as interim chairman, and appointed Hamzah to replace Marzuki.

Hamzah today defended the legitimacy of his post.

Dr Mahathir, however, retained the chairman’s post by virtue of being the sole candidate nominated in party elections, which has been suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. – May 29, 2020.