1. I WAS shocked to read excerpts from Tommy Thomas’ book My Story: Justice in the Wildness. Tommy was one of those lawyers who hated me. But before I became once again prime minister, Tommy came with Zainur Zakaria and Ambiga (Sreenevasan), both who, at one time, were against me, and Zainur Zakaria recommended Tommy for the post of Attorney-General (A-G).
2. At that time I was disillusioned with a number of Malay A-G who were prepared to obey the prime minister (Najib Razak) even when instructed (them) to do something obviously wrong. I thought it would be a good thing if the A-G is not a Malay.
3. When I became the seventh prime minister, I decided to appoint Tommy Thomas. I knew Malays would not like it. But the Malay A-Gs had not been true to their profession. I was prepared to face criticisms from the Malays. But I could not stop my Malay critics from condemning me over Tommy Thomas’ appointment as A-G.
4. I was generally satisfied with Tommy’s work. He explained to me that there was no case against the so-called supporters of LTTE. I accepted his explanation and wrote to Muhyiddin (Yassin), the (then) minister of home affairs. He dropped the case. The anger of the Malays against me was terrible.
5. Tommy knew nothing about my resignation. According to Tommy, I told him that the Agong had wanted to appoint Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as interim prime minister. This is nonsense. After reluctantly accepting my resignation, the Agong suggested I become interim prime minister. Wan Azizah could not be acting prime minister or interim prime minister because the Pakatan Harapan government had already collapsed.
6. My reason for resigning was because my own party, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, rejected my advice not to leave PH because, at the meeting of the presidential council of PH, all the members agreed to let me decide when I should step down. Clearly, they were not in favour of my stepping down to give way to Anwar (Ibrahim). Anwar and Wan Azizah attended that meeting.
7. At the meeting of the supreme council of Bersatu, on Sunday, my appeal to give time before deciding to leave PH was rejected. I knew that when Bersatu, together with Azmin’s faction of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), left PH, the PH government would fall as it lost the majority.
8. Although I pleaded to be given a week for me to decide, that night Bersatu, Azmin’s faction of PKR, Umno and PAS had a dinner in Sheraton Petaling Jaya. I refused to attend, because I was not informed beforehand. Obviously Bersatu, led by Muhyiddin had agreed to form a coalition with Umn and PAS together with Azmin’s faction. PH was no longer the government. They could not wait one week for me to decide.
9. I thought about the rejection of my advice by the supreme council of Bersatu in the light of Bersatu’s participation at Sheraton. I concluded that I had lost the confidence of Bersatu and therefore I must resign as its chairman. If I resign as chairman, I no longer represent the party in the PH. So, I decided to resign as prime minister as well.
10. After having informed the PH coalition leaders, I expected to have an audience with the King that afternoon. I believe he had already received my resignation letter when I met him that afternoon. He at first refused to accept my resignation. I was adamant and he then accepted it. But immediately, he asked me to be interim prime minister.
11. He never proposed any other name, certainly not Wan Azizah, the deputy prime minister (DPM). I never offered myself but it would be rude for me not to accept his proposal.
12. At that time the PH government had already fallen, as Muhyiddin had announced Bersatu had left PH at noon. Wan Azizah as DPM could not take my place as PH was no longer the government. Nor could any member of PH take over from me.
13. The King decided that the 222 members of Parliament should nominate a new prime minister who had the support of the majority of the members. He wanted them to make their choice by signing a statutory declaration in front of him.
14. It took two days with him witnessing the members naming their candidates and signing the declaration.
15. I did not put myself up as a candidate but I did expect to win. As I related above, the presidential council of PH decided to let me determine when I should leave. On the other hand, Hamzah Zainuddin, who plotted the fall of PH, had obtained statutory declaration from all Umno and PAS MPs that they supported me as prime minister.
16. I thought that my position was strengthened because I had the support of government MPs as well as opposition MPs. But Hamzah’s plan was to get me to head a new coalition consisting of Umno, PAS and Bersatu. I would still be prime minister and that should persuade me to leave PH.
17. But the PH MPs did not name me as their candidate when they made their statutory declaration in front of the Agong. Anwar had persuaded them that he had enough support from Sabah and Sarawak MPs and with PH MPs to have a majority to become prime minister. So, they named Anwar as the PH candidate.
18. But, actually, he had the support of only DAP, Amanah and his faction of… PKR. They totalled 92. I managed to get only 62. So, both of us lost.
19. When Muhyiddin was named prime minister he did not have majority support. But upon his appointment, he was able to offer places in his cabinet to the members who supported me. They crossed over and Muhyiddin achieved a majority of two.
20. During the time when Thomas was A.G. I got on quite well with him. He would see me for all major issues. I trusted him and defended him when Malays condemned him. His term was ending. I recommended a Tan Sri-ship for him.
21. PAS never directly asked me to drop him. But I had taken so much bashing because of him that I felt he should not continue after ending his term.
22. But when I resigned as prime minister, he came to see me to inform me that since I appointed him and since I was no longer PM he should also resign.
23. His account about my resignation is quite fantastic. I had always been labelled a dictator by the opposition when I was prime minister. I never expected the Opposition to adore me. That would not justify their opposition against me. But I resigned in 2003 because I felt I had been PM too long. Dictators don’t resign. But, of course, those who were against me were not going to stop claiming I was a dictator.
24. I don’t believe in overstaying my welcome. In 2020, I resigned as Bersatu chairman not because I wished to, but my party had lost their confidence in me. Besides, I believed PH had lost its majority and could no longer be the government. I also resigned as prime minister. Actually, this was not necessary as the collapse of the PH government meant I was no longer PM.
25. As far as the cabinet is concerned, when PH lost the majority, the cabinet could not be sustained. Article 43 of the Constitution, para (4) says “If the prime minister ceases to command the confidence of the majority of the members of the House of Representatives, then, unless at his request, the Yang di- Pertuan Agong dissolves Parliament, the prime minister shall tender the resignation of the cabinet.”
26. The situation was different from 1969, when Perikatan Nasional (PN) had a majority. It was not overthrown as PH was. The Tunku (Abdul Rahman) was expected to be the PM. But emergency was declared and NOC (National Operations Council) was formed headed (sic) by Tun (Abdul) Razak Hussein. Later when the Tunku resigned, Razak was appointed PM. He had the majority as Perikatan (Parti Perikatan, Alliance Party) had won the election.
27. Similarly Barisan Nasional (BN) had the majority when Hussein (Onn) decided not to contest and I became president of Umno and prime minister.
28. When I resigned in 2020, PH had lost its majority and the Agong could not simply appoint Wan Azizah, the DPM as prime minister. Neither did the Agong ask Wan Azizah to be interim prime minister.
29. There is no provision for interim prime minister. I accepted the designation because choosing a prime minister by the 222 members of Parliament would take time. The country needed a temporary head of government. Once the members had chosen the new prime minister, my appointment would cease. But the members did not give anyone a clear majority. Anwar had 92 while I had 62.
30. Yes. My resignation was personal. I never submitted the resignation of the cabinet. But when the PH government fell, there was no way the cabinet could remain. It had to go down with the government.
31. I cannot understand how a lawyer cannot understand this was not a change of prime minister. The PH government had lost. The Agong could not appoint Wan Azizah, the DPM as acting prime minister. Like me, she did not have a majority after PH was overthrown by Bersatu leaving together with Azmin’s faction of PKR or Justice Party. Neither did the cabinet.
32. As interim prime minister my job was to help set up a government. The politicians were all talking about their parties’ interests, not about the nation.
33. I thought we should all forget about our parties and think about the nation. So, I told all party heads that we should have a unity government and parties should forget their individual agenda. We should also bring in non-politicians into the government.
34. I remembered well that Razak, as head of NOC, tried to bring in all the opposition parties into the government. He succeeded with Gerakan, PAS and SUPP. But DAP refused. Still, he felt justified in naming the new coalition, the National Front or Barisan Nasional.
35. I thought that something similar was needed. But I failed because (Lim) Kit Siang said I was trying to become a dictator. He supported Anwar as the PH candidate. Had the 92 votes gone to me I would have 154 votes. You can imagine what direction the nation would take when all parties put the nation first. – February 3, 2021.
*Dr Mahathir Mohamad is the Langkawi Member of Parliament, and former prime minister.
* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.
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Comments
Posted 5 years ago by Zaini Nordin · Reply
1. I don't think TT or for that matter the other lawyers hated you. You are filled with hate and thats why you attribute people who disagree with you to hating you.
2. That's a bold move. A good idea but you wavered on your own decision in asking TT to resign after 1 day.
3. That was totally expected. So why did you waver even from the onset?
4. So TT was indeed the right choice and did a good job under the circumstances.
5. Your word against his. I trust what TT said. It was not for you to decide whether Azizah whould be appointed interim PM. You had resigned and Azizah being the incumbent DPM should rightly have been asked by the YDPA to be interim PM.
6. I think you resigned because you wanted to test the loyalty of your PPBM members. In the end the deserted you and you miscalculated badly. You had already planned to dump PH, esp DAP and PKR. But you were also not willing to work with Najib. You gambled and lost. Simple as that. Indeed DSAI and PH already agreed to let you decide on when you should step. Yet you didn't stop the plan to make PH collapse. TSMY and AA were people you could have influenced if you had wanted to. Again you miscalculated their total loyalty when you resigned.
7. The voice recording that went viral says differently. It was definitely you who agreed to follow the decision of the PPBM Supreme council to leave PH. You have never denied that recording.
8. Again you did not agree to work with UMNO enbloc. You wanted only those you think you can control and manipulate. So when the back door engineers realised they need the full support of UMNO to form the back door government, you backed out at the last moment. You did not do your arithmetic well. Excusable at your age.
9. Again, a gamble you miscalculated and lost.
10. This version differs from that of TT's. I think most people trust TT's version of events. You have proven time and again to indulge shamelessly with double talk and blatant lies.
11. Repeat of point 5. You are getting repetitive and incoherent with your thoughts TDM.
12. Too little to late. You caused this situation to happen with your resignation and your failed attempt to form the Unity government.
13. The King did right as you claimed (according to TT) to have the support of all 222 MPs. AgainI beleive TT is telling the truth. You assumed the numbers. There is no way 222 MPs will support you to form a Unity Govt. This lie is so unbelievable it exposes you as a serial liar.
14. The King too the effort to ascertain the real support. In the end he found that DSAI in fact had much more support than you. Again you miscalculated and failed.
15. Another nonsense few will believe. Hamzah and AA took advantage of the situation because you had presented to them the opportunity to advance their political career with your resignation and subsequent failure to garner the numbers in your support. They did support you as PM but your pride took the better of you: you had decided vehemently not to work with UMNO en bloc.
16. You think always that you are the only one capable of running the country and that you will get 222 MPs on your side. You didn't want to accept the fact that you are indeed one of the worst leaders Malaysia ever had the misfortune of having. Your race cards played against you because the racist refused to work with PH which represents all Malaysians.
17. Why should PH name you as PM? You had already resigned even though many PH rushed to your residence to try to persuade you to withdraw that resignation. But you had your own grand game plan which obviously failed. When you saw that you could not get the numbers, you also sabotaged to make sure DSAI also don't get the numbers. Warisan was indeed influenced by you not to back DSAI. Of course your supporters from PPBM will support DSAI, if only you will say so. But for whatever reasons, you actually hate DSAI to the core of your bone. Is it fear that after all the injustice you caused him that you can't believe DSAI can forgive you when he becomes PM? Again you have evaluated others based on what you are yourself.
18. DSAI still got more support and yet you still refused, in the interest of the nation, to relent and support DSAI. This entire episode of the back door government could have been easily averted if you had supported DSAI. The responsibility of the situation, in my view, falls squarely on your shoulders.
19. We all knew TSMY did not have the numbers initially. That was when he was weakest. But again you refused to relent and allow DSAI to become PM.
20. A small feather in your cap. I am sure everyone agrees TT deserved that award compared to so many others.
21. PAS, in spite of their hypocrisy has proven to be more reliable than you, most unfortunately because they are already at the bottom of the trough. How low have you sunk TDM?
22. But when I resigned as prime minister, he came to see me to inform me that since I appointed him and since I was no longer PM he should also resign.
23. TT's account on your resignation is truly believable. You ways as a dictator is quite real. Even in the PH, you were almost a dictator. Unfortunately the PH cabinet were not strong enough to oppose some of your irrational decisions, but at least they were able to prevent you from becoming your normal full dictator.
24. Lets not talk about the past but focus on the present and future. If you dont believe in overstaying your welcome, please note that right now you are certainly overstaying your welcome. You now have only few supporters. You time is over and if you are a gentleman, you will now try to fulfill your promise to the rakyat and try your best to support DSAI to be PM. "I believed PH had lost its majority and could no longer be the government. I also resigned as prime minister." On this what do you say now that TSMY and the PNN Govt does not have the majority but is still the govt?
25. I have read different interpretations of the law on this.
26. No relevancy to that now.
27. Stating the obvious and wrongly using it an an analogy.
28. Again it was your selfish desire to implement a grand plan where you will be in total controlfor aslong as you wished. This is just a weak excuse.
29. You sould have suggested to the YDPA to choose Azizah since she was DPM, even if the YDPA did not think of that. But of course, you need to be in that position to try to put together a Unity Govt because you were under the sad delusion that 222 MPs supported you. Another silly excuse for your selfish actions and intentions.
30. Again, your narrow interpretation of the law. I am not a lawyer but from my observation, when the PM resigns in other countries, the incumbent ruling party will select another person from its ranks to become PM. The incumbent party will then negotiate with other parties to try to get a majority to form the government. Onlyif there are signs that the government has lost its majority when this fails, the opposition head is invited to try to form the government if he/she can get the majority. Otherwise a new election will have to be called. This is what I have observed in many democracies throughout the world. So please don't try to pull wool over our eyes and justify your bad and silly actions and decisions.
31. That's because your understanding is flawed. There are so many lawyers who are better at this than you who says otherwise. I trust their interpretation rather than yours, Doctor. Again, you think you know everything. You know law better than the lawyers, even eminent ones.
32. You were the cause of this deadlock because you only focused on yourself becoming the PM. Nobosy else is good enough. History has shown this to be the truth.
33. "I thought we should all forget about our parties and think about the nation." If only you had sincerely and truly done that, we would not be in this mess. You are the architect of the current mess TDM. Please admit it. Bringing non politicians won't help if you bring in your cronies to rape and rob from the country.
34. Another irrelevant analogy.
35.LKS was right in saying so. That was your clear intention: to be in full and complete control indefinitely. The 92 votes will never go to you. It was just your silly delusion. Why not the 62 votes that you have go to DSAI? Frankly I don't think DSAI is perfect, but he will definitely make a better PM than you. If DSAI had been PM without you in the picture, PH would still be ruling today and the situation would have been more bearable for everyone.
TDM: Please just resign and throw your support for whoever PH choses as PM. All be be well if you do that. Its not complicated and just require you to come down to earth and wade into the sunset, where you belong.
Posted 5 years ago by Mike Mok · Reply
Posted 5 years ago by Elyse Gim · Reply