SHAH ALAM: Selangor Barisan Nasional (BN) has doubts that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad will pass the prime minister’s post to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim if the opposition forms the next government.
State BN chairman Tan Sri Noh Omar said it would be unrealistic to believe that Dr Mahathir would be an interim prime minister.
“It is a political promise that will never be fulfilled. If Dr Mahathir wanted to let Anwar be the prime minister, he would have done so before.
“It should have happened when Anwar was the deputy prime minister?
“Dr Mahathir has a history of removing his deputies and this is proven with the fate of Tun Musa Hitam and the late Tun Abdul Ghafar Baba.
“Dr Mahathir only wants the prime minister’s post for himself. There is no guarantee he will give it to Anwar.
“Who knows, he will play everybody out by letting his son, Datuk Seri Mukhriz, take on the post,” Noh told the New Straits Times today.
Noh said it could possibly be a trick by Dr Mahathir to have other Pakatan leaders agree with him being the prime ministerial candidate.
He said Pakatan’s nomination of Dr Mahathir as prime minister candidate also showed that the opposition had no qualified leaders to lead the country.
Noh said Pakatan should view the entry of Dr Mahathir’s Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) into opposition pact as a “luck”
“Otherwise, Pakatan will not have anyone else to be nominated as the next prime minister. Today, it proves that the pact has no hope and is unsure when they had to ‘recycle’ Dr Mahathir.
“It is obvious that Pakatan has fears of BN and thinks that Dr Mahathir is the only one who can fight against us,” he said.
On seat allocation among Pakatan allies for general election, Noh said it was clear that PPBM had become overly dominant in the opposition pact despite being the most junior political outfit.
Earlier today, Pakatan secretary-general Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah announced Dr Mahathir as its candidate for prime minister and its president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as the deputy prime minister candidate.
Saifuddin, who announced this at the Pakatan convention, said if the opposition won the coming, it would immediately initiate legal action to secure a royal pardon for PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for his release from prison.
As such, Dr Mahathir is only designated as an interim prime minister to enable Anwar to take over later.