PEJUANG’S fight to defend and uplift the Malay community will continue despite the party being wiped out in the recent general election, chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.

The former prime minister, who led the unregistered Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) coalition said its members want to continue because they feel their objectives are noble.

“We are fighting for good governance, against corruption, and to champion the rule of law.

“Pejuang members believe they are a good alternative to Perikatan Nasional,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

GTA, a pro-Malay coalition, is made up of Dr Mahathir’s Pejuang, the National Indian Muslim Alliance Party, Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia and Parti Barisan Jemaah Islamiah Se-Malaysia.

The coalition also included civil society groups, academics and professionals.

It fielded 125 candidates for parliamentary seats, who contested under the Pejuang banner nationwide and Putra logo in Kelantan because the Registrar of Societies has yet to sign off on the coalition’s status.

However, every GTA candidate – including Dr Mahathir and his son Mukhriz – was obliterated in the polls, losing his or her deposit in the process.

Meanwhile, Dr Mahathir said the future of the coalition will be discussed next month.

“Yet, the people (Pejuang members) I have seen said they want to carry on because they believe their struggle is legitimate and honourable.

“There are also professionals and those from the other parties in GTA, who are worried about the future of Malays.”

As for his role in continuing to lead Pejuang, Dr Mahathir said he will reluctantly continue as he had been asked to do so by the people.

“If people ask for my help, it will be selfish for me to say that I want to rest, enjoy life and be with my family.

“I can’t do that because people look up to me for help. I don’t want to be a leader, but I can provide ideas.”

Pejuang lost because of Perikatan

Going into the last election, Dr Mahathir said that Pejuang wanted to be an alternative to Umno to champion the interests of the Malays.

“We were hoping to get their votes but the voters went to Perikatan Nasional instead.

“This is because there was confusion about our coalition GTA and Pejuang.

“We couldn’t use the GTA common logo because the previous government didn’t allow us to register, so we used Pejuang’s logo and that caused confusion.”

The former Langkawi MP said the voters also saw that Pejuang was too small and too new to replace Umno.

“PN got the votes because the voters didn’t care if the (party) had betrayed their friends (through the Sheraton move). The voters just wanted PN to save them from DAP.

“So, the votes went to the PN and we lost. Another issue was money and PN had a lot of it.

“They spent a lot of money on advertisements, banners, flags and a lot of promotions.”

He said PAS, which was part of PN, had also asked voters to promise to vote for the Islamist party in return for money.

“All these were the factors that supported PN.

“Previously the professionals did not support PAS but now they are concerned about their afterlife and are more pious (so they voted for them). – December 2, 2022.