TWO Bersatu leaders aligned to Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s faction have been removed from their party posts by president Muhyiddin Yassin.

In separate letters dated June 2, Marzuki Yahya and Akhramsyah Muamar Ubaidah Sanusi were relieved of their respective duties as Penang chief and a party supreme council member.

Their removal comes a week after Dr Mahathir and four others were told by the party that they had lost their Bersatu membership for working with the opposition, Pakatan Harapan.

The party is divided by infighting involving Muhyiddin and Dr Mahathir over their political alignments.

Muhyiddin, who is also prime minister, prefers to work with Umno and PAS in forming Perikatan Nasional as the national government. He also has the support of most of the party’s MPs.

Dr Mahathir, meanwhile, wants to be aligned with PH, and has the support of four other MPs, including his son and party deputy president Mukhriz.

The others are party youth chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman (Muar), supreme council member Maszlee Malik (Simpang Renggam) and Amiruddin Hamzah (Kubang Pasu).

Dr Mahathir and the four have disputed their loss of membership and insist that they remain party members.

In the letters to Marzuki and Akhramsyah, Muhyiddin said their removal takes effect immediately.

The letters, sighted by The Malaysian Insight, did not mention their party membership.

Muhyiddin also signed the letter as acting chairman, a position Dr Mahathir had said is still his.

Muhyiddin’s faction, however, has disputed that, saying Dr Mahathir resigned as chairman on February 24, the same day he stepped down as prime minister.

Dr Mahathir has been elected uncontested to the chairman’s position at the close of nominations for party elections in February. The elections have been postponed to after June due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Previously, Muhyiddin also sacked Marzuki as the party’s secretary-general, replacing him with Hamzah Zainuddin.

However, Marzuki has disputed his sacking, saying it went against the party’s constitution.

Akramsyah, meanwhile, is one of Bersatu’s seven founding members, and has been critical of Muhyiddin in recent weeks. – June 4, 2020.