NEWLY formed movement Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) has ruled out working with Umno, calling it a party that is corrupted to the core.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad, GTA’s chairman, said former prime minister Najib Razak has managed to destroy Umno by instilling corrupt practices from top to bottom.

“Unfortunately, Umno is rotten to the core,” the former prime minister said at a press conference today.

“All the division heads joined Umno because they wanted to get contracts…and they get quite a lot of allocations too—not only the division heads but also the heads of branches and ordinary members.

“Najib managed to destroy Umno comprehensively, from top right down to the party roots,” the Pejuang chairman added.

The nonagenarian was responding to the question of whether he would consider working with Umno in the upcoming elections if the party managed to steer itself away from its leaders who were currently undergoing court trials.

Early this month, during the launch of GTA, Dr Mahathir said the movement would oppose and unseat Umno.

Dr Mahathir claimed that he realised how corruption had ruined people during the Johor election.

He said that party members had expressed to him that voters in Johor were asking for “rewards” in exchange for their votes.

“During the Johor election, Pejuang members called their friends to vote for the party but the answer we got was “How much will you give?” Dr Mahathir said.

He did not entirely shut the door on working with PH if the situation arose.

He, however, emphasised that GTA would be very selective when it came to working with any coalition.

“Maybe we cannot get more than 50% of the (parliamentary) seats, in which case we have to get support from other parties—but we will choose the parties.

“We will be very selective in working (with coalitions),” he said when asked about the chances of working with PH after the next general elections.

Dr Mahathir said that GTA would contest in 120 Parliament seats and 280 state seats.

He did not disclose more details. – August 18, 2022.