Tun Mahathir believed that Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's nomination as deputy prime minister will put pressure on the judiciary to do its duties in the court case involving the UMNO President fairly and courageously.
Ahmad Zahid is currently facing 47 allegations of corruption, breach of trust, and money laundering in court, hence Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad stressed that he should not be given any post in the administration.
According to the former prime minister, Ahmad Zahid's elevation to the position of second in command in the government will disturb the court, which might be forced to rule in his favour.
He is in court and there is a chance that he will be found guilty and punished, thus that (the appointment) should not have been made.
"Such individuals shouldn't hold such a high position because in the event of an emergency, the Deputy Prime Minister would be in control and we would have a Prime Minister who was still indicted," said Tun M in a recent interview with Berita Harian at the Perdana Leadership Foundation.
When asked about the impact of appointing Ahmad Zahid, who is still facing charges in court, as deputy prime minister in the unity government led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, he responded, "If the court is forced to rule in his favour, this indicates that there is no longer the rule of law in our country. It will become a government that prioritises the interests of specific people and causes the government to be disrespected by the people."
Commenting further, Dr Mahathir insisted that Ahmad Zahid should also have resigned as President of UMNO and refused to be appointed as Deputy Prime Minister after his party lost badly in the 15th General Election (GE15).
"After GE14, Datuk Seri Najib Razak resigned as UMNO President after losing and possibly being brought to court. Ahmad Zahid should have done the same because he has the same problem as Najib, so he should not hold any position."
Asyiqin Razak is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav.
Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
Newswav is solely an aggregation platform and hosts the content. The views expressed and content above including media (pictures, videos, etc) were provided by the author. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
