MALAY-BASED Pejuang, founded by Dr Mahathir Mohamad, is seeing the resignation of its top leaders as a protest against the party’s direction after the 15th general election, sources said.

In recent days more than 10 leaders have resigned, including senior central executive council members and deputy president Marzuki Yahya, they said, adding that about 16 leaders have resigned since the November 19 polls.

The Malaysian Insight understands that their resignations are related to the proposal that Pejuang supports the unity government led by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

Sources declined to confirm the exact number of top leaders who resigned as well as the reasons for their resignations.

They added that the party has not been officially informed of some of these resignations, and would only be done during this week’s party meeting.

Trouble seemed to be brewing when Dr Mahathir stepped down as party chairman last month. At that time it was speculated that his resignation was due to conflicts in the party over the role of Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) – a Malay political pact headed by Pejuang for the general election.

Dr Mahathir remains the chairman of GTA.

A source said the resignations in Pejuang came after Dr Mahathir stepped down.

“Since Dr Mahathir resigned (as Pejuang chairman), there has been no central executive council meeting. We are expecting a meeting tomorrow, if there is, then the party secretary-general will be officially informed of these resignations.

“It is unclear if the secretary-general has received any official letters of resignation. From what we have heard, those who have resigned do not want to be active in politics anymore,” the source added.

The Malaysian Insight contacted Marzuki but he declined to comment on his position in Pejuang.

However in a new year greeting earlier this week, he signed off as GTA secretary-general and not as Pejuang deputy president.

Letters sent

Another source said the leaders who had resigned had sent their resignation letters to the party’s secretary-general last month.

“There are another 13 people who have resigned, letters have been sent but party president Mukhriz Mahathir has not announced anything.

“They resigned as a protest against the president’s decision to negotiate with Pakatan Harapan (PH), especially PKR,” said a source.

In the general election, Pejuang and GTA contested on their own, and went against PH in several seats. However candidates from Pejuang and GTA were defeated in all seats, including Dr Mahathir and Mukhriz.

In an even more embarrassing turn, all the candidates lost their deposits.

The Malaysian Insight is trying to contact Mukhriz and Pejuang secretary-general Amiruddin Hamzah for further confirmation.

On December 17, Mukhriz confirmed that Dr Mahathir had resigned as Pejuang chairman, a day after speculation about the matter began to spread.

Mukhriz said his father remains a member of the party.

A few days after Dr Mahathir’s resignation, Pejuang Federal Territories chairman Khairuddin Abu Hassan also resigned and announced he has lost confidence in Mukhriz to continue leading the party.

He said he lost faith after Mukhriz suggested that Pejuang join PH after losing badly in the general election. The proposal is said to have been raised at the Pejuang council meeting on December 15.

The Malaysian Insight also understands that Pejuang Federal Territories in a meeting on December 7 rejected “strongly” the party’s desire to join PH but supported a similar effort with Perikatan Nasional.

Apart from Khairuddin, Dr Mahathir’s former political secretary Abu Bakar Yahya also resigned as a council member on December 18.

A week before that, Pejuang Youth wing chief Abu Hafiz Salleh Hudin announced his resignation, to, among other things, take responsibility for the party’s poor performance in the election. – January 4, 2023.