PEJUANG and three other parties in the Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) movement will use one common logo to contest in the upcoming 15th General Elections (GE15), Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today. 

The former prime minister said the movement is yet to get official approval from the Registrar of Societies (Ros) and that they are working to send in an application next week. 

“We consensually agreed to use one logo for GTA,” the Langkawi MP told a press conference at Putrajaya today after holding a presidential meeting within the movement.

“We have agreed that our name emphasises “Tanah Air” more than others. 

“Whether the logo will be called Tanah Air, we haven’t decided. However, we have agreed on the creation of this logo with a new design plan and we will decide on it by next week. 

“We will also send an application (to Ros) next week,” Dr Mahathir added. 

Earlier this month, Dr Mahathir, who is also Pejuang chairman, announced the establishment of the GTA to target Malay and Muslim voters fed up with Umno’s brand of politics.

The nonagenarian also said the movement is made up of Pejuang, National Indian Muslim Alliance Party (Iman), Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (Putra) and Parti Barisan Jemaah Islamiah Se-Malaysia (Berjasa).

Asked if the movement would get their approval from Ros before GE15, Dr Mahathir said he was confident despite his past experiences. 

“Based on my past political experience in Malaysia, if it is close to the election and if Umno is in power, they will probably not be allowed to register.”

“In GE14, Bersatu which was already registered had its registration suspended and Pakatan Harapan was not registered. That’s their strategy.”

“But we are sure such a wrongful act will not be done. However, we have a plan B if that happens,” he said. 

In the meantime, Dr Mahathir also announced a list of positions in the GTA to complete the registration to the RoS later. 

Mohamad Ismail from Parti Iman is treasurer, Nizam Mahshar from a Malay civil society group was made the Head of Information, Che Asmah Ibrahim from Pejuang will lead the movement’s Women Wing, Nasrul Ali Hasan will be made the youth wing leader while Azliza Rajain from Berjasa was made women youth wing leader. 

Dr Mahathir also rejected the accusation that the movement will divide the Malays in this country.

He said that the GTA is a movement that defends the Malays, who he claimed are facing numerous problems over the years. 

“There are accusations that we are dividing the Malays because of the establishment of this movement.”

“This is not true because when we formed this movement we merged four Malay political parties.” 

“This party will be in the GTA and that means that in the next election, they will not compete with each other and we will support candidates from the GTA,” he said.

Dr Mahathir added that the movement is open to all morally upright Malay political parties, organisations and individuals who are keen to uplift the fate of the Malays in the country. 

He, however, said that the movement will not accept people who are tainted by scandals, referring to some Umno members. 

Present at today’s press conference were President of Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (Putra) Ibrahim Ali, President of Parti Berjasa Zamani Ibrahim and Parti Iman’s Mohammed Mosin Abdul Razak. – August 18, 2022.