KUALA LUMPUR: Tajuddin Abdul Rahman says Dr Mahathir Mohamad is late to the party when it comes to the “Malay Proclamation”, claiming the former prime minister’s initiative is nothing new.
The former Pasir Salak MP said he had a similar initiative in his former parliamentary constituency in 2018, which had the support of more than 50,000 people from the Malay community.
“Even (PAS president) Abdul Hadi Awang came over to my house and stood on the stage and gave a speech to the crowd,” he said at a press conference here today.
“That was Hadi’s first time sitting on the same stage as Umno leaders,” he said, adding that this initiative eventually grew into becoming the Muafakat Nasional pact between Umno and PAS.
Tajuddin is believed to have been referring to a November 2018 rally in Pasir Salak, Perak, to protest against the attempted ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).
He claimed that most Malays were united under Muafakat Nasional, but lamented how the leaders of both parties had failed to preserve it.
He accused the party leaders responsible for the pact of failing to do their job, naming Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, his deputy Mohamad Hasan, then Umno Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, former Umno secretary-general Annuar Musa, and Zambry Abd Kadir.
He also named PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man and the party’s secretary-general,Takiyuddin Hassan.
“It is so sad to think about what has happened, the Malays are divided now,” he said, without elaborating on how the leaders had failed to preserve the pact.
MN was formed in the aftermath of the 14th general election and saw Umno and PAS working together to “unite the ummah”.
However, ties between the two parties grew increasingly strained after PAS joined Bersatu to form Perikatan Nasional when Muhyiddin Yassin was the prime minister.
Mahathir’s Malay Proclamation has been endorsed by Hadi and other party leaders as well as three leaders from Bersatu. It has also been backed by Mahathir’s former party, Pejuang.
It is the former prime minister’s latest initiative to unite the Malays, with the document listing 12 key problems faced by the community, including poverty.
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