PETALING JAYA: Former prime minister and Langkawi MP Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has decided to form a new political party and its first agenda is to contest in the upcoming Slim by-elections.
After the court today allowed the application by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to strike out a suit by Mahathir, his membership in Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) together with 5 others are nullified.
In a press conference today, Mahathir said he will continue to use this newly formed independent party to uphold the struggles faced by the Malays.
“I do not like to see too many political parties representing the Malays, but when the other parties have been dabbling with kleptocracy and they claim to represent the struggling Malays, this cannot go on,“
“We want to return back to the original struggle of the Malays and our fight will continue. Our policy is to go against corruption and kleptocracy,“ he said at a press conference at Yayasan Al Bukhary today.
His yet-to-be-named political party, called “Bebas” for now, will be referred to the Registrar of Societies (ROS), and he hopes the agency do not stop them from registering their party.
“We know the government has used tactics such as deregistering our party and also not acknowledging the Pakatan Harapan coalition before the general elections. It is not against the law, but it is immoral,“ he said.
He also claimed that he cannot be seen to be allying with PH as there are “certain obstructions” placed in the way and he finds it difficult to work with certain parties in PH.
“I don’t want to mention names but I think you know who we are talking about,“ he said.
He also hoped the party will be registered immediately as they want to contest in the Slim by-elections, which will have their nomination day on Aug 15, and polling day on Aug 29.
However, when asked if he will contest in Sabah for its upcoming state elections, Mahathir said he is inclined to leave this to Parti Warisan Sabah.
“At this moment we have not decided on Sabah, we still want to work with Warisan, so we are inclined to leave this to Warisan,“ he said.
He also revealed a little about the party structure, with him as party chairman, and his son, Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir as the party president.
“When I form Bersatu, Datuk Seri Najib (Abdul Razak) as Umno president was so powerful, but the people are empowered and they managed to bring down a kleptocratic government,“ he said.
When asked if he was breaking from PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Mahathir merely said he was not breaking away from anybody, but free from anybody.
