Why can’t you work with all these other leaders, too? Najib jibes Dr M

In a blog post today, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad explained the reasons why he cannot work with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

However, former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak has a light-hearted take on Mahathir’s musings, which had been republished in Malaysiakini’s Malay-language edition under the headline “Kenapa saya tidak dapat bekerjasama dengan Muhyiddin” (Why I can’t cooperate with Muhyiddin).

In his Facebook post, Najib took a screenshot of the Malaysiakini headline, on which he scribbled a list of other political leaders whom Mahathir had an acrimonious relationship with.

“Why?” Najib asked.

Those on the newly added list include Najib himself, as well as his predecessor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Mahathir had handpicked Abdullah to succeed him when he stepped down from his first premiership in 2003, only to turn against him and famously quit his Umno membership in protest.

Mahathir’s lobbying against Abdullah had been credited as one of the reasons for BN’s poor electoral result in the 2008 general election, forcing Abdullah to step down in 2009 with Najib as his successor.

Mahathir had then lauded Najib’s appointment and rejoined Umno, only to quit Umno again and led the Pakatan Harapan coalition against him in BN’s first-ever electoral defeat.

Others on the amended list include PKR president Anwar Ibrahim, former prime ministers Hussein Onn and Tunku Abdul Rahman, former finance minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, and former deputy prime minister Musa Hitam – all of whom feature prominently in Mahathir’s past political battles.

Mahathir had been critical of Tunku and took on the pen name Chedet in his early political career to criticise him. He still uses the pen name today for his blog posts.

In 1987, Umno faced a split amid a leadership crisis, and Hussein, Tengku Razaleigh, and Musa were among the prominent leaders aligned against Mahathir’s faction.

Tengku Razaleigh eventually led the splinter party Semangat 46 against Mahathir, before conceding defeat and rejoining the party.

Anwar was Mahathir’s deputy until the former was sacked over allegations of sodomy and abuse of power in 1998, triggering the Reformasi movement that led to the founding of PKR.

Anwar and Mahathir appeared to have briefly mended ties in the run-up to the 14th general election but soon squabbled of the issue of succession after Harapan won the election.

They have now locked horns on who should be Harapan’s candidate for prime minister as the coalition and its allies struggle to mount a counter-coup against Perikatan Nasional.

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