Dr M: I still have the support of the Bersatu grassroots

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad believes he is still a Bersatu member who has the support of the party’s grassroots.

As such, he said he would continue to fight on against Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also the Bersatu president.

“We consider ourselves still members of Bersatu. He (Muhyiddin) keeps on sacking everybody if they don’t support him.

“That cannot be because the constitution has proper procedures. As such, I am still a member of Bersatu and we will wait for the court to decide,” Mahathir was reported as saying by The Malaysian Insight today.

Mahathir, who was the Bersatu chairperson, said the party’s constitution states that it cannot sack people without proper investigations.

“In the constitution, the president must consult the chairperson, that’s me. But he sacked me without even asking me. He also sacked the secretary-general without asking me,” he said.

He said the grassroots members of Bersatu mostly joined the party because they believed in him, so he believes the party is still “generally supportive” of him as the chairperson.

However, Mahathir said, Muhyiddin (above) has enticed the party division leaders by giving them positions in the government to support him.

Since then, almost all Bersatu division leaders have changed their stand in favour of Muhyiddin, he said.

“But the rank and file still want the old Bersatu. They are not offered anything and they are a big number.

“They are not MPs. They feel the original objectives of Bersatu should be sustained. That is, we are against Umno.

“We will now have to deal with the rank and file without the leaders,” Mahathir said.

The response to the “Bersatu blackout” campaign, which was launched in Alor Setar, Kedah, on Saturday, has been encouraging, he said.

“Although they have no leaders, they turned out in full force. On Saturday, I had 800 people inside the hall.

“The hall could hold 2,000 but because of the need for social distancing, we only allowed 800 inside.

“Outside, there were more people. We also had around 17,000 who were watching the live broadcast on the internet,” Mahathir said.

The membership of Mahathir and four other MPs, namely Bersatu deputy president Mukhriz Mahathir, MPT member Maszlee Malik, Armada chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman and Amiruddin Hamzah ceased immediately when they sat in the opposition block at the Parliamentary session on May 18.

On July 19, Bersatu kicked out another parliamentarian from the party, Sri Gading MP Shahruddin Salleh, for sitting with the opposition during this Dewan Rakyat sitting.

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