THE DAP and PKR are openly up-in-arms against Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad.
Both parties have started to voice out against Mahathir’s plan to overstay his welcome beyond the 2-year Pakatan Harapan (PH) agreement.
PH leaders backing Mahathir and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim respectively are now in open warfare on the succession plan.
Under PH deal before the last 14th General Election (GE14), Mahathir was supposed to relinquish his post in May 2020 and hand it over to PKR president, Anwar.
DAP central executive committee (CEC) member Ronnie Liu Tian Khiew reminded Mahathir in a statement today, August 5, 2019, that he was only to be an interim 7th Prime Minister (PM7) under PH pre-GE14 deal.
He wants Mahathir to step down gracefully within the agreed timeline.
He rebuked Mahathir over his unwillingness to expressly state the date of handover despite assuring that he would honour his promise to pass the baton to Anwar as PM8.
Of late, he said doubts lingered whether the 94-year-old Mahathir was serious about sticking to his word.
Mahathir himself has hinted that he wished to stay on until the country’s economic woes can be settled.
But Ronnie Liu brushed aside Mahathir’s wish as an unwanted lame excuse.
“You say it could be two to three years. And sometimes you say it’s only when the economy recovers (who knows how long that would be)?
“Please let me remind you that the promise we gave the voters was not that you would be PM until the economy recovers. The promise was that you would be an interim PM for two years after which Anwar would succeed you,” the DAP strongman reminded Mahathir.
Another DAP stalwart, Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P. Ramasamy has chided Education Minister Maszlee Malik for publicly declaring support for Mahathir to complete a full term as PM7.
Ramasamy taunted Maszlee on whether he feared to lose his ministerial position if there was a change in the premiership of the country.
DAP and PKR members active in social media networks like Whatsapp and Facebook have expressed their regrets for trusting Mahathir.
Some claimed that they really thought Mahathir would honour the 2-year deal.
“Looks like Mahathir will not honour the deal like a gentleman.”
Previously many thought Mahathir was grooming PKR deputy president and Economic Affairs Minister Azmin Ali as his heir apparent.
But that speculation has died off following the gay porn ‘semburit’ video scandal.
Due to this intense fight over Putrajaya supremacy and PH’s loss of Malay-Muslim electorate ground, some observers claimed that Mahathir may have devised the proposal to introduce Jawi calligraphy or Khat in vernacular schools.
The Khat issue has put DAP on a back foot as many of its members and supporters are openly rebelling against the party leadership.
DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang statement:”Learning Jawi didn’t make me less Chinese, but more Malaysian”, didn’t go down well with the Chinese community.
The party grassroots are now imploring that the leadership has to do act proactively to stop the Jawi introduction.
Or else, Kit Siang and company are being warned that the DAP would implode.
Maybe Mahathir’s ultimate plan is to break up PH with the Khat agenda.
It will also help restore the loss of Malay-Muslim confidence in him.
Mahathir has announced that his government’s decision to introduce Khat in Bahasa Melayu was final, no turning back.
The DAP and, to a certain extent, PKR, on the other hand, have no choice but to oppose Khat.
Hence, open political conflict.
Currently, Mahathir is learnt has been having talks with opposition parties, including Barisan Nasional and PAS, on a grand plan to form a new federal government, minus PKR and DAP.
Khat could just be the nonagenarian’s trump card to cut open Pakatan.
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