KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 — A significant number of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia’s top leadership have insisted today that the party has left Pakatan Harapan (PH), following its chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s claim otherwise yesterday.
A statement issued today, undersigned by most members of its Supreme Council and several state chapter leaders, stressed the resolution made during a council meeting on February 23 had decided that the party should leave PH and form a new alliance with other political parties.
“This decision is clear and need not be disputed,” read the statement.
The statement also touched on how Bersatu as a party is fully behind the formation of Perikatan Nasional (PN) as a coalition aimed at achieving the goals and objectives set by PN’s memorandum of understanding.
It noted how Bersatu agreed to form an alliance with other parties to form PN for the betterment of the people and country’s political stability, while declaring its undivided support for the PN government led by Bersatu’s president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
Among the 27 signees of today’s statement were Bersatu vice-presidents Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman and Datuk Abdul Rashid Ansari, secretary-general Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin, treasurer Datuk Muhamed Salleh Bajuri and information chief Mohd Radzi Jidin, along with 21 other state and supplement council members.
Other notable names were Datuk Seri Rina Mohd Harun, Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof, Datuk Rais Hussin Mohamed Ariff, Wan Saiful Wan Jan, Tan Sri Rais Yatim, Datuk Kamarudin Md Nor, Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu, and Mazlan Bujang.
Besides Dr Mahathir, among those missing in the statements were his son and vice-president Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir, Youth wing chief Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman, ousted secretary-general Datuk Marzuki Yahya, Maszlee Malik and Datuk A. Kadir Jasin.
This comes as factions within the party have caused internal cracks to grow, with party members divided over whether to back party chairman Dr Mahathir or party president Muhyiddin’s faction.
The split within the party led Dr Mahathir to resign as prime minister in late February after he refused to be part of PN to cooperate with parties he ousted such as those within Umno.
Most recently, the split has caused Bersatu to lose a mentri besar, after Dr Mahathir’s son Mukhriz resigned as Kedah mentri besar following the collapse of the PH state government.
The collapse of the Kedah state government was triggered after two PKR state assemblymen defected from their party to become independents in support of PN.