Mahathir I M Even Accused Of Planning My Own Downfall

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Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said people seem to think that he is behind various political manoeuvring in the country so much so that he is even accused of planning his own downfall.
He said this after he was asked about his involvement in recent political developments in the country, including Warisan's plan to become a national party.
"I am being accused of planning everything, including my own downfall. My own downfall was planned by me.
"That is why I am not the prime minister. If I am a good planner, today I will have no problems," he told a joint press conference with Umno's Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.
The duo had hinted that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's government may collapse tomorrow as the Budget 2021 may not pass the third reading.
However, they were coy about details beyond appealing for MPs to choose the new government wisely if Muhyiddin's government does collapse.
Some in the opposition blamed Mahathir for the fall of his Pakatan Harapan government after his own party, Bersatu, turned on the coalition.
They also blamed Mahathir for resigning as prime minister after his own Bersatu MPs rebelled against him and insisted on quitting Harapan instead of putting up a fight.
However, Mahathir had maintained that with the MPs turning against him, he no longer commanded majority support and the appropriate thing to do was to resign.


Mahathir was eventually expelled from Bersatu and his lieutenant Muhyiddin took over as prime minister under a new Perikatan Nasional government.
He criticised the current government for excessive politicking, adding that people have continued to seek his help to intervene in the current political situation.
"That is why I discussed it with Tengku and a few others. We feel we need a good government that is dedicated to serving the people and country," he said.
However, Mahathir was coy on details of the plan or who the "few others" are.
What is certain is the "few others" does not include PKR president Anwar Ibrahim, who is also working on a parallel effort to bring down Muhyiddin's government.
"He (Anwar) has no contact with me so I can't discuss with him," Mahathir said.
Mahathir and Tengku Razaleigh, who have offered themselves in the event there is a new government, said they wanted to see Malaysia become an Asian Tiger.
Asked if Mahathir was willing to cooperate with Pekan MP Najib Abdul Razak, who has been convicted of misappropriating funds from a 1MDB subsidiary, the Langkawi MP said it was out of the question.
"I cannot work with Najib. I am sorry... I cannot accept if the government needs to rely on Najib, but Muhyiddin can accept that, so he accepted Najib," he said.
Mahathir added that even if Najib voted with the opposition, he will not be included in the new government.


The relationship between Anwar and Mahathir had soured after the collapse of the Harapan government.
Mahathir was supposed to hand over power to Anwar eventually.
However, some Bersatu leaders revealed that while Mahathir was prepared to resign as prime minister as promised, he wasn't going to instruct MPs loyal to him to back Anwar.
This meant Anwar could fall short of a majority in the Dewan Rakyat.
The revelation further strained relations between the two men.
However, the fall of the Harapan government meant the transition agreement was now moot.
Since then, Anwar had been working on securing a majority without the involvement of Mahathir and his allies.
However, this proved to be a stumbling block to a united opposition and also strained PKR's relationship with Amanah and DAP.
Amanah and DAP favour a united opposition and want Harapan to work with Mahathir and his allies while PKR is insistent that the ex-prime minister should not be involved. - Mkini

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