At a press conference today, Mahathir, Malaysia’ longest-serving prime minister, said the government seemed to focus on PPBM as it is able to pull Malay support away from Umno.
“I worry that we are losing democracy and the right to choose our leaders through an election,” he said, noting that the powers that be were only trying to “terrorise” PPBM but not other opposition parties.
“Najib fears PPBM. Wherever I go he will go the next day and make announcements,” said Mahathir, alleging that Najib was trying to win the support of the people with handouts, though he believed the people would not fall for the bait.
PPBM was formed in 2016 and is led primarily by former Umno leaders, including former deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin and former Kedah menteri besar Mukhriz Mahathir.
On PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli’s claims that he couldn’t generate a “Malay tsunami”, Mahathir said that at the rallies where he spoke, even in Felda areas which are Barisan Nasional strongholds, the people had come in droves.
“At our rallies, you will not see any buses, but at Najib’s rallies, you will see buses and the chairs will be arranged nicely, but we have seen pictures of empty chairs.”
Rafizi, who founded policy research outfit Invoke, said that data it had gathered didn’t support speculation that Mahathir could cause a “Malay tsunami”.
Mahathir also said that despite its provisional dissolution, no PPBM members would join other Pakatan Harapan (PH) component parties.
“If we are illegal, we cannot say we are from PPBM when we contest, but the 52 seats (allocated to PPBM by PH) still belong to us. Our members will contest as individuals under a common logo.”
He voiced confidence that PPBM candidates will get the watikah (authorisation letter) from a PH component party to contest under their banner.
Speculation is rife that PH may resort to using PKR’s logo as the common symbol for the four parties in the opposition pact. PH said it would reveal which logo will be used by the opposition tonight.
PH is made up of PPBM, PKR, DAP and Amanah.