Dr M, Mukhriz and three others' Bersatu memberships 'nullified'
Dr Mahathir Mohamad, his son Mukhriz and three others have their Bersatu memberships nullified for sitting on the opposition bench during the Dewan Rakyat sitting on May 18.
The decision was conveyed to them by organising secretary Muhammad Suhaimi Yahya via a letter dated today, sighted by Malaysiakini.
Dr Mahathir Mohamad, his son Mukhriz and three others have their Bersatu memberships nullified for sitting on the opposition bench during the Dewan Rakyat sitting on May 18.
The decision was conveyed to them by organising secretary Muhammad Suhaimi Yahya via a letter dated today, sighted by Malaysiakini.
The others sacked were Bersatu Youth chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman as well as Bersatu supreme council members Maszlee Malik and Amiruddin Hamzah.
Mahathir was the chairperson of Bersatu whereas Mukhriz was deputy president.
According to the letters, the decision to sack them was made based on Articles 10.2.2 and 10.2.3 of Bersatu's constitution which states that an individual's status as a member would be terminated with immediate effect if the member is found to have declared their intention to leave the party or has formally joined another political party.
Responding to media queries, an aide to Mahathir said the former premier had left his office in Putrajaya and had yet to sight a physical copy of the letter.
In a statement, Bersatu supreme council member Wan Saiful Wan Jan insisted that the leaders were not "sacked" but rather their membership status was automatically nullified due to their own decision to join the opposition bloc in Parliament (below).
"I would like to stress that they were not sacked [...] for comparison, when a person voluntarily walks out of their own house, they are not being removed from the house.
"It is their own action that caused them to be outside of the house. That is what happened in this case," he said.
Wan Saiful further insisted that no party in the world would allow its lawmakers to switch sides in Parliament.
"There is no problem with having differing opinions but it must be done from within the same bloc, not outside," he added.
Rafique Rashid Ali, who is legal advisor to several Bersatu leaders, responded saying that Wan Saiful does not understand the party constitution, nor the legal and constitutional rights of MPs.
“Since when are Bersatu and PN a coalition? Since when did the ‘Principled Five’ leave the party or join another party?” he asked.
Rumours of a plot to remove Mahathir and his allies had been rife since earlier this month with a planned Bersatu supreme council meeting - which was later postponed - convening to allegedly endorse the decision.
Bersatu split in the aftermath of the Sheraton Move which saw party president Muhyiddin Yassin leading a majority of its leaders out of the party to form Perikatan Nasional.
Mahathir, who is mounting a no-confidence motion against Muhyiddin's prime minister's post, had remained on the opposition bench along with four other Bersatu MPs during the May 18 Dewan Rakyat sitting.
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