KUALA NERUS: No party, especially DAP and the ruling government, should be “paranoid” over Pas’ move to table a vote of confidence in Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in the next parliament session.
Pas vice-president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar said it was unnecessary to oppose the prime minister as it was never Pas’s intention to establish the purported new political coalition Pakatan Nasional (PN) with any party in the ruling government.
“Unless you (the ruling party) have something to fear, then you will oppose the vote of confidence but as far as Pas is concerned, we are working with Umno on (our pact) Muafakat Nasional and the truth is I have not heard of PN until recently.
“We hope the prime minister will be allowed to carry out his tasks uninterrupted, and Pas, as well as the State government (of Terengganu), will support him.
“We have been consistent in our support for Tun (Dr Mahathir) to continue becoming the prime minister until his tenure ends,” he said after presenting the Empower ECER Awards 2019 at Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) today.
On whether Pas had received kickbacks to support Dr Mahathir to stay at the helm, Samsuri said he was not aware of any but said that under the Federal Constitution it was normal for the Federal Government to allocate funds to state governments for its development requirements.
“It is not something abnormal because allocations were always due to state governments every year and this is within the requirements of the administration. It has nothing to do with the party.”
On a statement by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng that the country would revert to the dark ages under PN, Samsuri said it was a view of someone who was “paranoid and failed to understand the multi-racial composition of the country”.