ALOR STAR: Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad says Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) victory in the 14th General Election (GE14) proved that the people had overcome the ‘nafsu’ (lust) to succumb to ‘money politics’ practised by the previous administration.
He said PH’s victory symbolises not just one political party’s success, but also is symbolic of the people’s rejection of the previous administration.
“This is also a victory of the people over lust, because of their love for religion, race and country which led them to reject the influence of money offered in order to support the party opposing PH.
“This is a momentous success and is unfortunate for them (the previous administration), as despite using billions of ringgit, the people still rejected them in favour of PH, despite knowing that choosing the latter would require sacrifice on their part,” he said at the Kedah PH iftar event on Sunday.
Also present were his wife, Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali; Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir and wife Tok Puan Norzieta Zakaria.
Dr Mahathir said the people’s act of rejecting such ‘goodies’ were borne out of their realisation that they need to take charge for the sake of the country.
He said Barisan Nasional (BN), previously regarded as champions of freedom who had governed the country for 61 years, have since become a ‘greedy party’ who wanted power just to seek for personal riches.
This, he said, led to BN being rejected by the people.
“This is what led to their downfall. We need to learn from BN’s failure. We had all this while criticised BN for being involved in money politics, so we should not follow their footsteps.
“This was our promise before the GE14 and I am confident that PH will not become so greedy until it forgets race, religion and country for the sake of money.”