MUHYIDDIN Yassin is a lost man for saying dominant political parties are no longer suitable to lead the country, Mohamed Khaled Nordin said.

The Umno vice president said dominant political parties are still relevant and claimed that the Bersatu president was ousted as prime minister because his party was not dominant in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition. 

“Apparently he (Muhyiddin) forgot that he was removed from the prime minister’s post because Bersatu was not dominant in the PN-led government.  

“Because his Bersatu party is small, (hence) the government he led easily fell,” Khaled said in a statement posted on his Facebook page today. 

Yesterday, at the launch of Gerakan’s 50th annual general meeting, Muhyiddin warned of the danger of having a dominant political party ruling the country, saying the Barisan Nasional (BN) era showed how such a system led to systemic rot in Malaysia.  

In his speech, the former prime minister said it was not good for the country to be ruled by one dominant political party.

He said the power enjoyed by BN prior to its fall in 2018 saw abuse of power and corruption.

He said it had become rampant as there were no strong checks and balances.

“In the early days, such a system that was able to create political stability was seen as being effective to spur the country’s development. 

“However, year after year, the power centred more on the individuals leading the party and the government. Party members had to agree with every decision and action taken by party leaders, even when what they did was not necessarily right,” he was quoted as saying. 

Khaled said Malaysia’s political instability in the past three years was due to the absence of a dominant political party.  

He even said it was a shame to see several lawmakers party-hop to form the government and betraying the public’s mandate. 

“Maybe he doesn’t remember the political instability Malaysia experienced over the past 42 months is due to the absence of a big and dominant party in forming the government.  

“Dozens of MPs jumped parties to trade their positions and form the government.  

“Malaysia has never witnessed an episode of betrayal of the people’s mandate at such a magnitude.  

“Only since Bersatu became the government with both Pakatan Harapan and PN, the culture of ‘political cheating’ has become common,” the former Johor menteri besar said. 

Khaled also asked if the PN chairman had forgotten that Malaysia follows a Westminster-style democracy.  

“This means that only the largest and strongest parties are invited to form the government.  

“Around the world, political parties are struggling to win elections with the most seats. Only with the most seats can a majority government be formed.  

“With a comfortable majority, the government can focus on developing the country instead of saving power,” he said.  

Khaled said he is curious to know how many seats would Bersatu contest in the next general election.  

“In the 14th general election, they won only 13 seats but their leader became the prime minister.  

“Perhaps because of that, Bersatu is comfortable being just a small party but needs Umno to be their life saver,” he said.  

Khaled is hopeful that Umno would win big in the next general election and return to power as the dominant political party. – December 5, 2021.